Wedding & Portrait Photojournalism

In our semiotic world littered with advertisements in every avenue of our life, few people actually stop to look notably at the aesthetics and compositional elements. Over time, most advertisements are left neglected and decompose which is considered to be an eye sore by most people’s standards. While in New York Aaron Siskind went against this grain and stopped to notice the decay of forms in the city. He then went on to make compositions in New York. A brilliant work of his named New York #56 hosts a sign that without a close look would be next to unidentifiable. He chose to compose this image in an abstract way; while it is balanced it creates tension because you cannot read what the sign says. Beyond the decay with time you can distinguish an element that says “AREA”; directly above it you notice bits and pieces of a word but it is undistinguishable. Above that word a line exists then another word in a lighter shade ending with the letter “R”. The decay in the photograph is composed of organic shapes and under the decay the sign is composed in organic lines and letters. This silver gelatin print was created in 1951 with a series of many other abstract images that focus on elements and decay.