Vermont 174 is a photograph taken in Vermont in 1987. He defies the idea of photography, and art in general, telling a story, and emphasizes the idea of curiosity and imagination is his photos. This is extremely evident in this specific photograph. In Vermont 174, it is pretty hard to tell what is being photographed. It can be assumed that this picture was taken with the camera facing downwards and he was taking a picture of the ground, as the textured parts of the photograph appear to be rocks. In the photograph, it can also be assumed that there are shadows, but what the shadows can be are up for interpretation. The shadow is not overpowering the photograph, yet the shadow of whatever object has enough presence in the picture for the viewer to become interested in knowing what it is. This is one of the photographs that grabbed my attention because it is one of the ones where it is particularly harder to tell what you are looking at. This close range photography that Aaron Siskind evolved into over the years allows for his photographs to be a topic of conversation, and while not knowing the full context of it, it still does not take away the beauty and essence of the photograph.
It is most likely tar on a road. From the way Siskind has cropped the photograph, how are the black lines used compositionally?