Outward Bound, The Mauretania Possibly 1910 - 1932

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph, "Outward Bound, The Mauretania," a small black and white print, just before World War One. Can you imagine Stieglitz at the pier, the sounds, the smells, the excitement of departure? Look at the geometry: the receding verticals of the posts, the horizontal ship, the diagonals of the water. A dance of shapes. What was he thinking, framing this massive ship with these humble posts? Was he thinking about scale, about modernity? It’s so melancholic, you know? It reminds me of when I see something really big and monumental against something really small and insignificant. It makes you feel small, but alive to the potential of new ideas. Stieglitz, with his camera, invites us to consider our place in the world and the fast moving currents of history.