Another HCB

Here's another picture I saw at MoMA's current humongous (and very uneven) HCB retrospective -- it's also from the Bankers Trust series of 1960:


(Here for bigger version).

It's not a great picture, but an interesting one nonetheless. Here's my take -- it's made by the guy in the upper left hand corner, way in the back. The picture is much weaker without him.

Cover him up and what's left? Just an OK picture. One that could easily appear in the company brochure (or, less anachronistically, website). A company-line portrayal of Bankers Trust: Serious, Thoughtful, Trustworthy.

But the man in the upper left corner ruins that. Though he is well outside the plane of focus, we can that he's observing the scene unfolding before him. He is aware of the photographer's presence, and of the photographic project being done before him: the construction of an image by both HCB and Bankers Trust itself.

His posture says he is skeptical of the enterprise. Cynical toward Bankers Trust's effort to portray itself. And similarly toward HCB's complicity.