Clouds or Equivalent 1927

Editor: We're looking at Alfred Stieglitz’s 1927 photograph, "Clouds or Equivalent." It's a black and white image of clouds, a fairly close-up shot. It’s striking how these almost form figures, or evoke very powerful emotions, despite being…clouds. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a reflection of Stieglitz's interior world. These "Equivalents," as he called them, are deeply symbolic. The clouds, rendered in stark monochrome, act as metaphors. He once said, "Whenever I experience something that deeply moves me, I photograph it." This transcends mere representation, becoming a visual language of feeling. What emotions do you perceive arising here? Editor: I see a certain drama, a weightiness…almost like a struggle. Curator: Precisely! Stieglitz, grappling with personal and artistic anxieties in the late 1920s, projected these inner conflicts onto the sky. The clouds' forms—threatening or serene—reflect the mutability of his emotions. How do these forms relate to a more traditional understanding of landscape, would you say? Editor: I guess they completely break away from it! We usually think of landscapes as stable, but this is all fleeting, and about emotion, like you said. It’s interesting he calls them equivalents; that there’s an explicit mapping. Curator: Consider the role of the camera. He felt photography was a medium able to capture his state of mind more truly than painting. With their capacity for change, what might clouds say about the project of modernism, in the 1920s? Editor: It’s fascinating how he uses something so natural to express something so personal. I’ll never look at clouds the same way. Curator: Indeed, Stieglitz's clouds are an invitation to contemplate the universal language of symbols and how they echo within our own experiences. A marriage of internal, cultural, and physical landscapes!