Lichtreclames bij avond (nacht) in Chicago, Verenigde Staten 1936

This photograph, Lichtreclames bij avond, shows lighted signs at night in Chicago, and was captured by Wouter Cool. The greyscale makes me think about the raw bones of the city. Here, Cool uses light and shadow to carve out forms in the night, to articulate the visual cacophony of the city. It makes me think of when I’m painting, trying to find some kind of order in the chaos of the studio. Look at how the vertical signs read like totems—they’re kind of glowing, but they are also like monuments, sentinels. There’s a certain clarity, too. Cool is trying to say something about the American city as a place of spectacle and dream. It has a real kinship with the work of artists like Piet Zwart, who was also doing typography, also working with photography, and also trying to figure out what the modern world looks like. What does that look like? I don’t know; it’s up for grabs.