--- description: Inspired by surreal cartoons, Powell creates a dialogue between text and images title: See How Gus Powell Mixed Words and Images for Wits image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d97e8fa9116007e/6988783dcd1bba00986fedad/gus-powell-the-lonely-ones-39-yes.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # See How Gus Powell Mixed Words and Images for Wits by [Aaron Schuman](/author/aaron-schuman/) ## Aaron Schuman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 13, 2016 9:00 AM CUT  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery by [Aaron Schuman](/author/aaron-schuman/) ## Aaron Schuman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 13, 2016 9:00 AM CUT In the mid-1930s, the celebrated cartoonist William Steig (1907-2003) – who was then regularly freelancing for _The New Yorker_, and would later go on to author a vast array of classic children’s books, such as _Sylvester and the Magic Pebble_, the _Doctor DeSoto_ series, and _Shrek!_, amongst many others – became profoundly interested in the writings of Sigmund Freud. Deeply inspired by psychoanalytic theory, Steig began to produce a series of what he himself called “symbolic drawings”, which aimed to portray people in the throws of various emotional and psychological states. The drawings, often quite Cubist in style and accompanied by simple yet heartrending captions such as “I want your love but don’t deserve it”, “People are no damned good”, and “All I ask is to be left alone”, were in a sense an attempt to introduce the complexity of repressed feelings, internal tensions, and hidden yearnings into a medium that was primarily visual, and generally associated with lighthearted humor and wit rather than intensive soul-searching.  Gus Powell photographed the artist William Steig at his home in Boston in 1999. Gus Powell Boston Unsurprisingly, when _The New Yorker_’s founder and editor at the time, Harold Ross, initially saw the works, he deemed them “too personal and not funny enough.” Nevertheless, Steig remained undeterred, and several years later collected his “symbolic drawings” together into book form, releasing them as three volumes – _About People_ (1939), _The Lonely Ones_ (1942) and _All Embarrassed_ (1944). _The Lonely Ones_ in particular – with its depictions of quiet yet powerful moments of existential crisis – brought Steig wide acclaim, and remained in print for nearly three decades; today it represents one of the earliest and most important publications within the genre, specifically in terms of aiming a book of cartoons exclusively at an adult audience. Earlier this year, the photographer Gus Powell – who himself regularly freelances for _The New Yorker_ today – released a perfectly pocket-sized publication that not only directly borrows Steig’s title, but also draws inspiration from Steig’s approach in a variety of very effective and compelling ways. Also entitled _The Lonely Ones_ (published by J&L Books), Powell’s book – like Steig’s – pairs succinct texts with his photographs in a manner that is suggestive of an underlying internal dialogue; between the author and the reader, or perhaps between the author and himself. The book is designed so that on each page the reader first encounters one of Powell’s suggestive one-liners on its own, and then discovers a curiously captivating image hidden within a gatefold behind it. The unsettling plea, “Let’s not ruin it by talking,” opens to reveal a standoff between a fashionable young woman and a lonesome horse on the streets of New York, their respective chestnut ponytails mirroring one another as they catch in the late-afternoon sunshine. The unexpected query, “Which way to the symposium?” conceals a passing instant on a perfect summer’s day, where up in the deep-blue sky an enchanting monarch butterfly silently flutters by. The single statement, “Yes”, leads into a sandy beach swathed in fog, where three officious figures stand at the shoreline pointing crimson smoke-bombs out to sea, perhaps in the hopes of retrieving lost sailors, and at the same time making a vividly evocative offering to the vast ocean before them. Photographs such as Powell’s, which are in fact strengthened and made meaningful by their open-endedness and the curiosity it inspires, are often stifled if not strangled when matched with accompanying captions or texts; words often divulge such images’ secrets too easily, transform their mysteries into something more literal or illustrative, or pin them down to specific circumstances, meanings or intentions. Yet, like Steig, Powell performs this balancing act between text and image masterfully, using sparse sentences to invoke and enhance the symbolic power of his imagery – to pry his photographs open even further, uncover their potential for both emotional and psychological insight, and infuse them with a subtle yet very personal sense of poignancy that is at once both playful and profound. [**_Gus Powell_**](http://www.guspowell.com/ "undefined") _is a photographer based in New York. His show, The Lonely Ones, is on view at the Sasha Wolf Gallery in New York until Feb. 26._ **_Natalie Matutschovsky,_** _who edited this photo essay, is TIME’s senior photo editor._ [_Aaron Schuman_](http://www.aaronschuman.com "undefined") _is an artist, writer, curator, and lecturer, and the founder of SeeSaw Magazine._  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery  Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4171565/see-how-gus-powell-experimented-with-words-and-images/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4171565/see-how-gus-powell-experimented-with-words-and-images/"},"headline":"See How Gus Powell Mixed Words and Images for Wits","datePublished":"2016-01-13T09:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:40:00.188Z","description":"Inspired by surreal cartoons, Gus Powell creates a dialogue between text and images","url":"https://time.com/4171565/see-how-gus-powell-experimented-with-words-and-images/","keywords":["LightBox","photography","portfolio","street photography"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d97e8fa9116007e/6988783dcd1bba00986fedad/gus-powell-the-lonely-ones-39-yes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aaron Schuman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aaron-schuman/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d97e8fa9116007e/6988783dcd1bba00986fedad/gus-powell-the-lonely-ones-39-yes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Gus-Powell-The-Lonely-Ones-39-Yes","caption":"Gus-Powell-The-Lonely-Ones-39-Yes","creditText":"Gus Powell—Courtesy Sasha Wolf Gallery","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-lightbox/","name":"LightBox"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4171565/see-how-gus-powell-experimented-with-words-and-images/","name":"See How Gus Powell Mixed Words and Images for Wits"}}]}] ```