From The Shelton, New York, 30th Floor—Looking North 1927

Alfred Stieglitz shot this photograph, ‘From The Shelton, New York, 30th Floor—Looking North’, probably with a large format camera. It’s a city vista, but it's also a study in atmosphere. I can imagine Stieglitz up there on the 30th floor, feeling the vibrations of the city, that low hum, and seeing the way the light diffuses through the air. There’s a tall tower, the Shelton Hotel, and other buildings fading into the distance. It's a visual poem about urban space. It reminds me of the Ashcan School painters, like John Sloan or George Bellows, who were also capturing the grittiness and dynamism of New York City at that time, but with paint. Stieglitz, though, he’s using the camera to find something more ethereal, almost romantic, in the modern landscape. He’s pulling the rug out from under what we expect a photograph to do. You can almost feel the cool air and the weight of the city pressing in. Artists like Stieglitz show us how to see the world, and then other artists come along and remix those ideas, and the conversation keeps going.