Equivalent 1930

This is one of Alfred Stieglitz's "Equivalents," photographs of clouds that he started making in the 1920s. He wasn't trying to capture the sky exactly, but rather to use the clouds as a way to express his own feelings. The tones in this photograph are beautiful, ranging from almost black to wisps of white. It’s a lesson in how to make something out of very little. See how the light seems to be coming from behind the clouds, giving them a glowing, ethereal quality. There’s a real contrast between the solid dark mass at the bottom and the fluid shapes above. Notice that brighter patch in the upper right, like a key change in a song, it lifts the whole image. Stieglitz was part of the Photo-Secession movement, which fought for photography to be seen as fine art. His work reminds me of Gerhard Richter’s blurred landscapes, both playing with the edge between abstraction and representation. Ultimately, these clouds aren't just clouds, they're feelings made visible.