Songs of the Sky A9 1923

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph, Songs of the Sky A9, probably in the early 1920s. It's not just a picture of clouds, but a study in light and dark, a kind of visual poem. Look closely, and you'll notice how Stieglitz coaxes so much variation out of black and white. The clouds aren’t just clouds; they’re these sculptural masses, with edges that bleed and blur. The light streaks, like divine interventions, cutting through the gloom. It’s dramatic, almost theatrical, with the landscape reduced to a shadowy silhouette at the bottom. The greyscale tones in this image feel so rich, don't they? Each area in the photo has a completely different tonality, which gives the image a sense of spatial dynamism, despite the lack of colour. Stieglitz made a whole series of these "sky" photos. You could say he was improvising, trying to capture something fleeting and ineffable. Think of Georgia O’Keeffe, his wife, who also found endless inspiration in the natural world, abstracting flowers and landscapes into something deeply personal.