Rebecca Salsbury Strand 1922

This gelatin silver print, "Rebecca Salsbury Strand," was captured by Alfred Stieglitz. It depicts a close-up of a woman gazing upwards with an enigmatic smile. The upward gaze, a motif laden with symbolic weight, has echoed through art history. In antiquity, it appears in depictions of deities ascending to the heavens, or figures in the throes of divine inspiration. Think of the ecstatic saints of the Baroque period, their eyes lifted to the heavens, or the romantic poets seeking inspiration from sublime nature. Here, the upward gaze elicits a complex emotional response. It suggests a reaching beyond the material, an introspection, and a connection to something larger than the self. The eyes, windows to the soul, engage us on a subconscious level, drawing us into her inner world. This image, in its quiet intensity, becomes a mirror reflecting our own aspirations and yearnings. It reminds us that the symbols of our shared visual language have a life of their own, constantly evolving as they are reinterpreted across time and space.