Known for pushing the boundaries of photographic abstraction, Aaron Siskind made this striking series of divers at Lake Michigan in Chicago from 1953 to 1961. His early work was social documentary, but in the 1940s be began to shift towards abstract images that were metaphorically oriented, closing in on recognizable subjects like graffiti or sea grass on sand to isolate expressive forms. Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation, too, focuses tightly on the subject, cropping out any identifying background so that the figures float against a white expanse. Like Siskind’s abstractions, the series is psychologically expressive; as some bodies appear relaxed and others contorted in their efforts, the figures balance on the pinnacle between a human desire for flight and fear of falling.