Dorothy True 1919

Alfred Stieglitz made this gelatin silver print, called Dorothy True. It's just a fragment, cropped in. The sensuality of the image is striking, the way the light falls across the silk or satin background. I wonder what it was like to be Stieglitz, in the darkroom, coaxing these tones out of the chemicals. Did he see it emerge like this in his mind’s eye? Or did the image reveal itself through the process of making? The dark stocking is delicious as it slides down the leg, culminating in the gleaming shoe perched on that cushion. It makes me think about what painters like Manet were doing in painting silk and satin and skin. You know, artists are always looking, always in conversation with each other, across time, across media. This print reminds us that the smallest glimpse can ignite a whole world of feeling. It celebrates the process of photography as a way of seeing, thinking, and experiencing the world.