Georgia O'Keeffe—Hands 1918

Alfred Stieglitz took this photograph, Georgia O'Keeffe – Hands, capturing a very intimate moment. I wonder, was O’Keefe playing, or posing, or both, when Stieglitz took this picture? Were they playing a game? There is an odd mix of seriousness and levity in her gesture, a reaching out. The light, diffused by the curtain, is so soft and delicate. It is like a dance. You can almost feel the fabric between her fingers, the coolness of the glass in the window. The shapes formed by her hands are amazing, she seems to almost mimic the landscape behind them. The way the light falls suggests something about form and surface that many painters at the time were thinking about, like Marsden Hartley for example. Artists are always in conversation, like dancers, responding and influencing one another. There’s so much ambiguity here, so much to unpack. And isn’t that the point? Painting, photography, whatever, it's not about answers, it's about the questions.