A Venetian Well Possibly 1894 - 1934

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph in Venice, and what gets me about it is how he uses the camera to flatten the space, almost like paint. The way the light falls, creating these hard-edged shapes, it’s all about seeing, and the image becomes a study in contrasts and tones. Look at the surface of the building behind the well. It’s worn, like old canvas, stained with time and weather. And then there’s the texture of the well itself, which is rough, you can almost feel the stone. The woman in the image, drawing water, she is part of the composition, but also separate, like the paint that has been layered to make the image. The light feels heavy, like pigment. This reminds me a little of Edward Hopper’s paintings, the way he captured a quiet sense of isolation. But where Hopper used color, Stieglitz uses light and shadow to create mood. It's about the act of seeing, how we construct our own narratives from light and texture. It's never one fixed thing.