Equivalent 1925

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph, Equivalent, and you can see how he’s approached photography as a process of light, tone, and form, much like a painter approaches a canvas. In this image, Stieglitz captures a play of light and shadow in the sky. It's all about the texture here, the way the light seems to both reveal and conceal the forms within the clouds. The tones range from the deepest blacks to the most subtle grays and brilliant whites. Look at how the light catches the edges of the clouds, creating a sense of depth. The gesture of the clouds swirling and billowing becomes this metaphor for the intangible, for feelings, for things that are hard to put into words. Stieglitz’s work reminds me a little bit of Gerhard Richter’s abstract paintings where the blurring of edges and the emphasis on light evoke a similar sense of the sublime. It’s this idea that art is always a conversation, each artist responding to and building upon what came before.