Songs of the Sky Q3 c. 1923

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph, "Songs of the Sky Q3," and the image is built from tonal gradations, shifts, and emerging forms. It’s a dance of blacks, whites, and grays. I can almost feel Stieglitz out there, looking up, framing, and capturing a fleeting moment of light and cloud. It feels like he’s trying to pin down something ephemeral, something that’s always changing. He seems to be asking, 'Can I catch this? Can I hold it?' And the answer, of course, is both yes and no. The physical surface is smooth, unlike painting’s thick impasto, yet it shares something with the drama of Turner’s sunsets, or the vast skies in Van Gogh’s landscapes. All of these artists were looking, searching, and experimenting with ways to record and reimagine the world. Each is in conversation with the other. This is what artists do – they find ways to make sense of what they see and feel. It's an ongoing conversation across time.