In my recently completed list of "10 Epiphanous Photographs," the ninth image was Aaron Siskind's Jerome Arizona; more colloquially known as Siskind's "peeling paint" masterpiece. While I cannot recreate Siskind's genius for abstract expressionism, it is hard to avoid navigating (or, more precisely, trampling upon;-) some of the same regions of his carefully defined (and pioneering) artistic landscape.
An aesthetic prompt for following in Siskind's "camera"-steps was provided by the many unique compositional opportunities living in what is rapidly turning into one of my favorite local haunts: Forest Glen, a park (near Silver Spring, Maryland) that consists of a half-dozen or so old, abandoned buildings that (dating back to the 1880s) were used, in turn, for a tobacco plantation, a hotel, the Norfolk College for Young Women, a seminary, and, in 1942, an Annex of Walter Reed Army Medical Center (see my Kafka's Door blog entry). Among Forest Glen's veritably unlimited scope of visual delights, is a seemingly endless parade of crumbling walls with layers upon layers of peeling paint.
Thus, I present for your viewing pleasure a small selection of unabashedly Siskind-inspired (but distinctly Andy-esque) "peeling paint" abstracts (the one at the top is also mine, as is the one highlighting my last blog entry, Ergodicity & Art)...
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