From the Back-Window—291 1915

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph from a back window at 291. Can you imagine him, night after night, looking out? What kind of patience does that take? I’m imagining that Stieglitz was interested in something very particular here: a kind of feeling, an inquiry, a sense of loneliness, a kind of starkness, maybe even a way of making a mark, as a painter does. It’s like he’s not just documenting, but reaching for something, a moment or a mood. The lights are like stars, they make a kind of constellation against the buildings—a conversation between light and dark. It’s dark but full of light, cold, but somehow intimate, too. Maybe this kind of looking is a kind of abstract expressionism. Photographers like Stieglitz have always borrowed and offered ideas to painters, and vice versa. Art history is one big conversation. We inspire each other.