Ellen Koeniger, Lake George 1916

"Ellen Koeniger, Lake George" was made by Alfred Stieglitz using a camera and photographic paper. The image is small, almost intimate in scale. I wonder if Stieglitz labored over the final print, coaxing out the dark tones of the woman's bathing suit, the rippling water, and the subtle gradations in the sky. I imagine Stieglitz at Lake George, turning his attention to the human form, finding beauty in the everyday. There's something very sensual about the wet fabric clinging to the swimmer’s body. The light shimmers on the surface, highlighting the curves and contours, and her stance seems powerful and confident, hands on her lower back, ready to plunge. The darks and lights almost flatten the image. Abstraction flattens space, yet her body seems sculptural. Photography is a dialogue between the real and the abstract. Stieglitz is having that conversation with us.