Chicago Facade 7 1960

Aaron Siskind made this black and white photograph, Chicago Facade 7. It is an image of an urban building with a grid of windows; twelve in total. I wonder, what was it like to stand there, the camera pointed up, framing those windows? Siskind was interested in the language of objects, and in this work the windows are like abstract shapes, with the curves at the top almost smiling, cartoon-like. The linear details of the brick and the ladder on the right are so textural, almost like the surface of a painting, and makes me think of the work of Charles Sheeler. Siskind's work has influenced so many artists, who have all borrowed, stolen, and transformed each other’s ideas through time. It reminds us that art is a conversation, each one building upon the other.