New York 1987

This black and white photograph, “New York,” was made by Rosalind Solomon sometime after 1930. It is a thoughtful composition of a man at a window, a veiled figure, and a blindfolded head on a bureau. The textures here range from the smooth glass of the window to the rough, porous surface of the sculpture. These differences create a tension; the smooth and the rough, the seen and unseen. Take the blindfolded head, it has this kind of stoic presence that is simultaneously unsettling and serene. The way the light catches the folds of the veil and the planes of the sculpture gives them a ghostly, almost dreamlike quality. Solomon’s photographs often deal with themes of identity, mortality, and the human condition, and like Diane Arbus, she has a distinctive voice. And maybe it’s this openness to ambiguity that makes her work so compelling. It’s not about having all the answers, but about embracing the questions.