Georgia O'Keeffe 1918

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph of Georgia O’Keeffe with a camera. It’s sepia toned, which gives it a kind of timeless, dreamy feel. I love the way the light falls across her face, soft and diffused. You can tell it wasn’t about a perfect image, but capturing something essential about her. Look at her hands. They're positioned right at the heart of the image, clutching at her coat as if she's holding herself together. There's a vulnerability there, but also strength in the way she meets the viewer's gaze. The dark, heavy fabric of the coat contrasts with the delicacy of her skin. It’s like a painting in grayscale. Stieglitz made many portraits of O'Keeffe over the years. They show her in different moods and stages of her life, charting their intense relationship. You can see traces of artists like Edward Steichen in this work, who used photography to make painterly images. To me, art is like a conversation through time.