Rebecca Salsbury Strand 1922

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph of Rebecca Salsbury Strand using gelatin silver, a process that dominated photography for over a century. The gelatin silver process involves coating a base, usually paper, with light-sensitive silver halide crystals suspended in gelatin. When exposed to light, these crystals form a latent image, which is then developed, fixed, and washed to create the final print. Stieglitz's mastery is evident in the tonal range and clarity he achieved. The photograph has a tactile quality, with smooth gradations from dark to light, characteristic of the gelatin silver process. Photography's rise was intertwined with industrial capitalism, democratizing image-making, yet dependent on factory-produced materials. The labor is less in the taking of the image than in the material's production and the skilled darkroom work. By focusing on the materiality and making of this photograph, we appreciate it not just as an image, but as an object born of specific technologies and labor, blurring the lines between art, craft, and industry.