Equivalent, Set B, No. 1 1929

Alfred Stieglitz made this gelatin silver print, titled "Equivalent, Set B, No. 1," during a time when photography was still fighting for its place among the fine arts. Stieglitz, a champion of photography as an art form, sought to capture not just the likeness of a subject, but its emotional essence. He looked to the clouds as vehicles for his feelings, photographing them to express a range of human emotions. He once said: "I wanted to photograph clouds to find out what I had learned about photography." Here, the swirling forms of the clouds, set against the stark contrast of light and dark, evoke a sense of both turmoil and transcendence. With this series Stieglitz moved away from traditional, representational photography, and emphasized the ability of a photograph to be a symbol, to communicate feeling. In doing so, the artist opened up new possibilities for photography as a medium of personal and artistic expression.