Outward Bound, The Mauretania Possibly 1910 - 1932

Alfred Stieglitz made "Outward Bound, The Mauretania" with a camera, at an unknown date, but it's all about seeing. The tones here are subdued, almost like a faded memory, and it's easy to think of this as a painting. See how the grays and whites blend, creating a soft, almost dreamlike quality? It's as if he’s not just capturing a ship, but a feeling. The way the light hits the water, the subtle gradations in the sky, it's all so carefully observed. Look at the smoke billowing from the ship's funnels. It’s soft, blurred, and gives the picture a sense of motion. Stieglitz isn’t just interested in the object; he's trying to catch the ephemeral, the transient moment. There’s something incredibly modern about that. Stieglitz had a real interest in showing the potential for photography to be expressive as painting. Think of Whistler's atmospheric nocturnes, where the subject is less important than the mood. It’s this kind of poetic sensibility that makes you realize that art is just one big, ongoing conversation.