Georgia O'Keeffe—Hands and Breasts 1919

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph, Georgia O’Keeffe—Hands and Breasts, using gelatin silver print. The image is a study of Georgia O’Keeffe’s breasts being held by her own hands. What’s interesting here is the way Stieglitz lets the materiality of the photograph speak. The grainy texture and the soft focus create a sense of intimacy and vulnerability, but also a tactile quality. You can almost feel the warmth of the skin, the pressure of the hands. I keep coming back to the way the light falls on the hands, emphasizing the lines and contours, making them appear almost sculptural. This reminds me of some of Brancusi’s sculptures, where the focus is on the essential form, stripped down to its most basic elements. And like Brancusi, Stieglitz manages to capture something profound and universal about the human body, its beauty and its fragility. It’s less about the specific subject, and more about form, light, and feeling.