House and Poplars, Lake George 1934

Alfred Stieglitz made "House and Poplars, Lake George" with gelatin silver, sometime in the first half of the 20th century. The tones are almost painterly, like he's building the image with shades of grey as if they were brushstrokes. Look at the way the sky is rendered. It isn’t just light or dark, but something much more atmospheric. The house itself almost seems to grow out of the landscape. There's a lovely mirroring going on between the verticality of the poplars, and the house. He emphasizes a kind of harmonious connection between the human-made and the natural. There's a definite contrast happening between the sharp detail of the house and the softer focus of the trees. It's almost like he's saying, "Here's what we construct, and here's what we find." I think of the work of people like Edward Steichen, also working in photography with similar tones. It’s all one big, beautiful conversation.