Jacob Deschin 1975

Mike Mandel made this photograph of Jacob Deschin at an unknown date using photography. It looks like it's from a series of baseball cards, but not quite? It's a bit enigmatic, but that’s why I like it. The tonal range is what grabs me. In black and white, Mandel isn't just recording an image, he's making something. It’s all about surface, the way the light hits the sheen on that mitt. And the backdrop feels almost like it was painted, not photographed. Look at how the focus softens around the edges. The sharpness of his grin against the blurry background, like a half-remembered dream. There's something so tender about it, like a faded memory. It reminds me of the work of John Baldessari, another artist who embraced the intersection of photography and text, playing with the way images and language can create new meanings. Like both Mandel and Baldessari, the work reminds us that art is about questioning, and the joy of embracing uncertainty.