Equivalent 1925

Alfred Stieglitz created this gelatin silver print, titled "Equivalent", part of a series of cloud photographs, at an undetermined date. The image presents a high-contrast, almost abstract composition dominated by the interplay of light and shadow across a field of clouds. The eye is drawn into the swirling forms, where the ephemeral nature of clouds becomes a study in tonal variation and texture. In this work, Stieglitz is not merely capturing a meteorological phenomenon; he is exploring the equivalence between external reality and internal emotional states. His approach shifts the photograph away from its traditional role as a mirror of reality, towards a medium capable of expressing subjective experience. The clouds, thus, function as signs, a semiotic system through which Stieglitz communicates feelings and ideas. Ultimately, it is the radical abstraction achieved through purely photographic means that challenges our understanding of representation. This encourages us to consider how photography can destabilize the fixed meanings we assign to the world around us.