John Marin Possibly 1915 - 1934

This is Alfred Stieglitz's photograph of John Marin, and you know, I think about what it must have been like to be a painter back then. Stieglitz has caught Marin in a moment of intense concentration. He’s leaning in, brush in hand, and you can almost feel the energy radiating from him. He’s wearing a shirt and vest, his sleeves are rolled up, ready to get to work. And what is he working on, do you think? A watercolor maybe, judging by the tray and the glass of water. I love the way Stieglitz frames him here. The lighting is soft, almost intimate, like we're getting a secret peek into Marin's creative world. You can see the mess on the table—tubes of paint, brushes, paper—all the beautiful chaos that comes with making art. It’s a beautiful reminder that art is never created in a vacuum, it's always part of a larger conversation between artists and their world.