Songs of the Sky DD1 c. 1923

Alfred Stieglitz made this gelatin silver print, Songs of the Sky DD1, to capture something beyond the surface. It’s about the process of looking, of seeing how light shapes everything. The tones are amazing, shifting from the deepest blacks to delicate grays, making the clouds feel like they’re alive, always moving, never fixed. Notice how the light doesn’t just illuminate; it sculpts the clouds, giving them a weight and volume that’s almost palpable. There is a dark form in the lower half that anchors the image, a solid presence in the midst of all that ethereal fluff. It's like a deep breath in the middle of a song. Stieglitz was trying to find a way to capture feelings. Much like the work of Georgia O'Keeffe, who he collaborated with, these photos are about finding the extraordinary in the everyday. It's a reminder that art isn’t about answers, but about the questions we ask along the way.