L'Homme Qui Marche 1907 - 1912

This is Eugène Druet’s photograph of ‘L’Homme Qui Marche’ from the Met collection; it's a powerful image, printed using a platinum process. I’m really drawn to the tonal range here, and how the light describes the texture of the sculpture. The surface is so tactile, it’s as though you could reach out and feel the bronze. The photograph becomes an object in itself. Look at the way the light catches the figure's back – the way the artist has made such solid forms feel almost fleeting. Druet isn't just documenting, he's interpreting. There's a dialogue happening between Druet and Rodin here, a back-and-forth of ideas. It reminds me of what Jasper Johns did with Duchamp, or what Rauschenberg did with de Kooning. Art is a conversation, an ongoing process of re-evaluation. And as in any conversation, what is left unsaid can be as important as what is said.