Equivalent 1926

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph, "Equivalent," using silver and gelatin. Look at the tonal range, how the light seems to sculpt the clouds. He’s wrestling with something here, searching for a language to describe not just the sky, but maybe some feeling inside of himself. I know that place when you are trying to find a feeling, you know? I can imagine him looking up, framing the clouds, maybe waiting for that exact moment when the light and shadow did something that matched what he was trying to say. What was he trying to say? That's up for grabs. It's like he's using the sky as a canvas, or maybe even a mirror. Stieglitz is trying to find a correlation between the outside world and his inner life. Like when painters look to other painters to find the right language, they’re also looking to nature. The history of picture making is one long conversation.