I took this in Milwaukee one July evening in 2014.

Ghost of wronged Japanese wife, from Enfers et fantômes d’Asie, at the Quai Branly

There is a French idea of early spring that goes back in art to the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This couple has found a very contemporary way of embodying that esthetic among branches and young leaves and the details of the bicycles behind them.

Title of Proust’s novels, translated as Remembrance of Things Past, literally The Search for Lost Time.

An aubade is a serenade at dawn.

Although the composition of this shot from July is not perfect, it captures a telling moment, where the gaze of one person attaches to another and complex emotions of recognition seem to occur.

The person on the left is fully Downtown Manhattan, shoes, dress, hair style, perfect posture, at ease in her body, matching the sign of the restaurant she is retracting the awning of, focused on her job, not caring that the dress, which is a work uniform, a party dress and somewhat like a nightgown, rises with her labor, a perfectly neutral complement to her well cared for body. No part of her person draws attention away from the whole. She could be an actress or a model.

The other person is not downtown at all. Her shoes, her skirt, her top, her purse, her braids are all fighting for our attention. The top especially. They do not fall gracefully on her body, but each has a different theme. Her top is overemphasized, and her bottom disappears. The purse looks like it belongs to another person, wearing another outfit, in a different universe. What feelings she has at this moment, we can only surmise.

The person on the right is wearing a black summer dress also, in a way that is also a little bit stylish, but completely causal and also suited to her as an individual.