Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation #50 1961

Aaron Siskind made this photograph, Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation #50, using a camera and film. I love the high contrast of black and white; it gives the image a graphic quality, and makes me think about how he was composing the image. Look at the figure—the dark silhouette against the bright background. The texture almost looks like charcoal or India ink, and the sense of light and shadow feels tactile, like you could touch the surface. It’s as if the man is suspended in mid-air, weightless, caught between falling and flying. The way his body is angled makes me think of an acrobat in motion. It also reminds me of some of the work of Minor White, another photographer interested in abstraction and the emotional resonance of simple forms. It's like Siskind invites us to project our own feelings and experiences onto the image.