Storm Clouds 1921

Karl Struss made this photograph, ‘Storm Clouds’, with gelatin silver. The high contrast and soft focus create a dreamy, almost painterly quality. It feels less like a snapshot and more like an atmosphere captured. There’s a lone figure walking into the light. The trees are silhouetted against the stormy sky, their branches like scratchy lines. I keep coming back to the way the light pools on the horizon, drawing my eye into the scene. The dark areas feel velvety, while the lighter parts have a glow, a kind of inner radiance. It’s a mood, right? This reminds me of the Tonalist painters. Think Whistler’s nocturnes, where atmosphere and emotion take center stage. Like those paintings, this photograph invites us to get lost in the shadows, to find beauty in the subtle gradations of light and dark. It’s less about what we see, and more about how we feel.