Katherine (Lake George Cook) 1921

Alfred Stieglitz took this photograph of Katherine, his cook at Lake George. It’s undated, but probably from the early 20th century. What’s interesting to me is the tonal range. It's full of dark, velvety blacks, but also, these pops of light – like the pearls on her bathing suit and the shine on her stockings. The surface of this photo has a real depth. It's as if Stieglitz is building up layers of atmosphere. It gives the photo a tactile quality, like you could almost feel the dampness of the bathing suit and the earth she stands on. Look at how the light catches the fabric around her waist. It creates these fluid, almost abstract shapes that remind me of a Franz Kline painting. But then you step back, and it’s a portrait. I love the way he blends the personal with the formal, much like what painters were doing at the time. It's like he’s saying, "Hey, photography can be just as expressive and ambiguous as painting."