Empire State Building, New York, Verenigde Staten 1936

Wouter Cool made this photograph of the Empire State Building, New York, using gelatin silver print. Imagine standing on a busy New York street, craning your neck to capture the sheer scale of the Empire State Building. Cool’s photograph compresses this experience into a vertical thrust, a gray geometry softened by the atmosphere. The eye is led by a misty contrast between light and dark. He might have been thinking about the city, the sky and all the people bustling on the street below. I imagine the experience of documenting the tower as transformative. Cool’s gelatin silver print embodies its subject matter. It is a photograph concerned with light and shade, with a sense of dynamism and precision, all rendered in shades of silver and gray. The composition is really great, with the tower dominating the skyline above the other buildings. It’s as if the artist wanted to create a sense of depth and perspective. Photographers are always looking, always teaching us how to see the world anew.