New York from 405 E 54th Street 1937

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph, New York from 405 E 54th Street, using gelatin silver. It’s a moody, atmospheric piece, with the soft greys and blacks really shaping the feel of the city. Looking at the surface, you can almost feel the dampness in the air, see the way the light reflects off the water. The texture is smooth, almost velvety, but there's a grit, too, in the details of the buildings and the skeletal structure of a building under construction on the left of the shot. It's this contrast that grabs me. The way the solid structures fade into the misty sky, making the city feel both permanent and fragile, present but also slipping away. The little boat in the foreground adds to the effect, suggesting a journey, a passing moment. Stieglitz’s work often captures these fleeting moments, these studies of light and shadow. You can see a similar feel in the work of someone like Edward Hopper, who was also interested in urban life, but with a slightly different emotional charge. Ultimately, this piece is about seeing, about how we perceive and experience the world around us.