8 rue de Varenne, Paris 1934

Ilse Bing snapped ‘8 rue de Varenne, Paris’ with a camera, sometime in the thirties. What strikes me about this photograph is its commitment to the tonal range of grey. It’s so subtle; Bing coaxes so much nuance from what could be a drab palette. The photograph has a grainy texture, as if rendered with a soft pencil, which gives a tactile quality to the light. Look at the streetlamp on the left, its bulb glowing, throwing shadows like dark syrup. Then there’s the street sign, ‘Rue de Varenne’, partly obscured by shadow. I love how Bing turns something so ordinary into something so mysterious. It reminds me of some of the early street photography of Paul Strand. It's the artist's eye that makes all the difference. In the end, it isn't about the subject, but about the way of seeing.