Michael Wilkins
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Photograph of the bronze Charging Bull sculpture in lower Manhattan seen from the front and side, its head lowered and horns forward, polished bronze catching the light with bare winter trees and flags behind.

Charging Bull

Bowling Green, New York · February 2021

1D X Mark II, 35 millimetres, f 2.8, 1/250 of a second, ISO 100

Three and a half tonnes of bronze, installed overnight without permission.

Arturo Di Modica made this, trucked it to Wall Street in the middle of the night in December 1989 and left it there without asking anyone. The city removed it; the public complained; it came back. Shot low and from the front quarter so the lowered head and horns lead the frame. The bronze is polished to a shine in the places tourists reach, which tells you a lot about people.