Equivalent 1924

This is a photograph by Alfred Stieglitz, and he called it "Equivalent." It’s full of big, soft masses of cloud, looming in shades of grey and white. You can almost feel Stieglitz out there, the wind whipping around him as he points his camera up at the sky, trying to capture something that feels so much bigger than himself. I like to imagine that maybe he wasn't just taking pictures of clouds. He's trying to find a way to express a feeling, like a painter searches for the right color to capture a mood. Think about the way the light catches the edges of those clouds—it's almost sculptural, right? It’s like he's sculpting with light and shadow, trying to find the visual equivalent of an emotion. Artists are constantly speaking to each other, across time. They have this ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas, inspiring one another’s creativity. There's a sense of embodied expression here, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty. It allows for multiple interpretations and meanings, refusing any fixed reading.