New York 1987

Curator: Rosalind Solomon’s stark photograph, titled “New York” from 1987, really arrests my attention. The monochrome palette creates an intriguing space for analyzing form. Editor: It’s rather unsettling, isn’t it? The stark black and white combined with the almost confrontational gaze of the sitter generates an unsettling mood. Curator: Unsettling, yes, but also incredibly precise in its compositional strategy. Consider how the subject is framed within this very modern interior: his reclined pose mirrors and contrasts with the fractured portraiture looming above him. Editor: You mean that fragmented face. To me, it's a broken self-image imposed onto the sitter. Could it suggest the pressures of living in the city, of fragmented identity? Curator: I appreciate that interpretation. The geometric interruptions slicing through the painted portrait echo a kind of modernist alienation, perhaps the psychic fragmentation that modernity imposes upon the individual. Note how these are not haphazard forms; each line works with angles of the room, the edge of the picture frames behind him... Editor: You know, I find the casual pose interesting too. It contrasts dramatically with the fractured image looming over him, as if he were passively experiencing his fragmentation instead of actively engaging with it. And yet his eyes, the one visible in the portrait, seem focused on us. Curator: Exactly. Solomon plays with tensions between vulnerability and control through a very thoughtful composition. It is interesting how portraiture as a style carries meaning: what's missing matters here just as much as what's visible. Editor: It's this balance between revealing and concealing which creates this mood, don't you think? By reducing it all to monochrome and showing a highly intimate space, this work gets under your skin and sticks in your head. Curator: It does, rather powerfully. Thank you, this has opened some new angles on the artist’s fascinating process of layering interior spaces with symbols. Editor: Indeed! The power of seeing beyond just what meets the eye. This photography truly prompts a closer, deeper observation.