Aaron Siskind Photographing at Old Yuma Jail 1949

This black and white photograph, by Max Yavno, shows Aaron Siskind taking a picture at the Old Yuma Jail. The grey tones are like a limited palette, but within that, there’s so much to see. It’s all about texture, about how the light hits those peeling walls and the rough bars of the cells. There's an alley of cells receding into the distance. On the right is Siskind, obscured by his camera, like a silhouette against the light at the end of the corridor. He is using a large format camera; that tells you something about his working methods, each shot a deliberate act. It's so process oriented, a real commitment to the moment. Yavno, here, is not just documenting a place; he’s capturing another artist in their process. You can see so much in the composition. This image reminds me a little of Bernd and Hilla Becher, who documented industrial structures, maybe because it also deals with the architecture of confinement. Art’s an ongoing dialogue, right? No one works in a vacuum. There is always going to be a conversation.