Sculptuur van een discuswerper in de Vaticaanse Musea te Vaticaanstad before 1907

Edizione Brogi made this photograph of a discus thrower sculpture at the Vatican Museums. The cool thing about black and white photography is that it can make a photograph of sculpture feel like a drawing, like an Ingres or something. Look at how the gradations of light across the figure create the illusion of three-dimensionality, emphasizing the play of muscles and the tension in the athlete's pose. The texture of the marble is smooth, but the photographer makes it look rough. See how the light catches the surface and creates little bumps and pits across his torso? The angle is so dynamic, too, it really captures the moment of athletic exertion. It reminds me of some of those early photographs by people like Muybridge who were trying to break down motion into discrete actions. The figure looks trapped in time, just about to fling his discus, his energy frozen in place. That’s something photography can do, preserve the past, while also giving it to the future.