Barn c. 1935

This photograph of a barn was captured by Alfred Stieglitz with a camera, sometime in the early 20th century. It’s all in shades of grey and black, like charcoal markings on paper. I imagine Stieglitz moving around, looking through the lens. What kind of barn is it? What’s its history? When I look at this barn, I feel like I’m looking at the paintings of someone like Milton Avery, maybe because of the reduction to simple forms and a particular understated beauty. It’s so dark, the wood of the barn, and the way the light hits it and makes it glow. You know? I wonder if Stieglitz was thinking about the way the rough texture of the wood contrasts with the smooth sky. I like the way the dark doors of the barn look like they are disappearing into a void; it's very mysterious. It makes me think about how artists are in an ongoing dialogue, borrowing and riffing off one another’s ideas through time.