John Marin 1921

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph of John Marin, sometime around the early 20th century, with a camera and some photographic paper. The light is so delicate and the tonal range subtle, like a whispered secret. Look at how Stieglitz coaxes a soft glow from Marin's face, a tender regard. The textures, though, are pretty wonderful, too. You can see the individual strands of Marin’s hair, but they are also like an abstract scribble of tone and light. And the way the light catches the fabric of his suit – it’s all about these small gestures, these almost invisible details. The area around his eyes, those deep-set shadows, they tell a story. It's a story of time, of life, of the deep waters that painters like Marin navigate. You know, this reminds me a bit of some of those old portrait painters, like Rembrandt, who used light and shadow to dig into the human soul. Both artists understood art as a form which embraces ambiguity. There are no fixed meanings here, only possibilities.