Lake George c. 1922

Alfred Stieglitz captured this photograph, Lake George, with a camera and photographic paper, which now resides at The Art Institute of Chicago. I can almost feel the stillness and quiet he must have experienced while taking it. Look at the gradients of grey and the cloud formations – delicate, almost like brushstrokes. I can imagine Stieglitz framing the shot, composing the landscape. It’s a physical and mental dance, deciding what to include, what to exclude, just like applying paint on canvas. Stieglitz, like painters, was interested in exploring the essence of a moment. He found it in the subtle interplay of light and shadow on the hills and clouds of Lake George. I see a connection between his work and painters like Gerhard Richter, who also experimented with realism to capture nature. Artists, across disciplines, are in an ongoing conversation. They seek to push boundaries. They explore new ways of seeing and being. It's a constant back and forth, inspiring creativity across generations.