Londres 1954

Sabine Weiss’s "Londres" is a photograph, and like any good painting, it's a lesson in seeing. Weiss coaxes a whole world out of shades of grey, and in doing so, makes the process visible. Look at the way the light falls on the wet pavement in the foreground. It's almost a physical thing, wriggling like a worm or a snake. That stripe of light leads your eye into the depths of the image, toward the two figures standing in the distance. They are barely visible in the fog and darkness, and their presence feels almost incidental, a kind of anchor in the dreamscape. This image reminds me a lot of the work of Eugène Atget. Both artists share an impulse to document everyday life with an eye for the uncanny, discovering a kind of hidden surrealism in the familiar streets of Paris and London. Art is about seeing, but also about making others see.