Music—A Sequence of Ten Cloud Photographs, No. V 1922

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph, Music—A Sequence of Ten Cloud Photographs, No. V, using gelatin silver. When I look at this photograph I think about a painter like Gerhard Richter who used photography as the source for a painting. I want to imagine Stieglitz looking up at the sky, trying to find a way to make a photograph that wasn’t just about representing what’s there, but about something more elusive. Stieglitz is trying to get at something deeply felt, deeply known –- beyond what we can easily name or describe. The tones and textures he coaxes from his materials resonate with the drama of the sky. It seems less about the clouds themselves and more about the emotional or spiritual quality they evoke. It reminds me that artists are constantly pushing the boundaries of their chosen mediums, searching for new ways to express the inexpressible.