Songs of the Sky 1924

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph, Songs of the Sky, using gelatin silver print. Stieglitz, a key figure in the Photo-Secession movement in the United States at the turn of the century, championed photography as a fine art. He sought to elevate photography to the same level as painting and sculpture, challenging the prevailing view that it was merely a tool for documentation. He was invested in the formal aspects of photography, like composition and light, and he wanted to demonstrate that a photograph could be as expressive and evocative as any other work of art. This was a period of rapid industrialization and urbanization, and photography offered a way to capture and reflect on these changes. By focusing on natural subjects like clouds, Stieglitz sought to create images that were both visually stunning and emotionally resonant. We can use institutional records and photographic journals from the period to understand the context and impact of his work.