New York 170 1982

Aaron Siskind made this gelatin silver print, New York 170, using a camera and darkroom techniques. The image has come into being through the artist's eye and hand, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. Siskind seems to respond to the city as a site of creative investigation. He finds the canvas ready-made, already brimming with marks, signs, and textures. He then reframes them. Imagine Siskind wandering through the streets, searching for surfaces that speak to him. What might he have been thinking when he made this print? There's a definite physicality to the medium. The blacks are deep and velvety, punctuated by stark whites. The graffiti-like marks, the drips and splatters, all feel like embodied expressions of the city’s energy. Siskind's work reminds me of other photographers who find abstract beauty in everyday scenes. He invites us to see the world in a new light, as if in an ongoing conversation. It's a dance between intention and chance, where multiple interpretations and meanings can emerge.