Winter, New York c. 1893 - 1932

Alfred Stieglitz made this gelatin silver print, Winter, New York, at an unknown date, capturing a snow-laden street in the city. Looking at the picture, I can imagine Stieglitz out there in the cold, setting up his camera to capture this moment. The way the snow is rendered is so beautiful – thick, soft, and obscuring everything. You can almost feel the silence that falls over a city during a heavy snowfall. I wonder what he was thinking as he framed this shot? Probably like many painters, he was thinking of the tonalist painters. The carriages and figures moving through the snow create a feeling of gentle movement, and that lone figure in the background makes me think about the way we all navigate our own paths through the world. Like Edward Steichen, his peer and sometimes rival, Stieglitz was a pioneer of photography as an art form. His photos are little gems. They remind us to find beauty in everyday life. It’s nice to think of artists inspiring each other, across mediums and across time.