Untitled 1980

Ralph Steiner made this photograph, Untitled, using gelatin silver. It’s all about process, I think. The way the light filters through the clouds, captured in shades of gray, feels like a dance between chance and control, much like what I try to do in my paintings. Look at the billowing clouds; the texture is almost tangible. The way the light catches the edges, creating these soft, blurry lines, feels so immediate and present. In the center, there's this gathering, a convergence of light and shadow that pulls you right in. It's like a focal point, but one that's always shifting, always changing, like a fleeting thought. This image reminds me of Alfred Stieglitz's cloud studies, the way he tried to capture the essence of feeling and emotion through the sky. Steiner seems to be doing something similar here, using the camera as a tool for exploring the ephemeral nature of experience. It’s a conversation across time, an ongoing investigation into what it means to see and feel the world around us.