Yuma 7 1949 1949

Aaron Siskind made this photograph, titled Yuma 7, in 1949. It's all about seeing the world in a new way, finding abstraction in the everyday. The photograph shows a close-up of a cracked and weathered surface, maybe asphalt, with peeling white paint. The texture is rough, almost tactile. The dark grays and blacks contrast with the stark white of the remaining paint. The paint isn't just a flat plane but has dimensionality and depth. It's like a map or a landscape, with its own peaks and valleys. I like the way Siskind isolates this fragment of the world, and the top layer of the white paint becomes a kind of accidental calligraphy, like writing or graffiti, yet there's no intended meaning. This way of seeing reminds me a little of Cy Twombly, who likewise found a profound kind of beauty in the accidental mark. Art, like life, is full of surprises.