From My Window at the Shelton, North 1930

Alfred Stieglitz took this photograph from his window at the Shelton Hotel, and what strikes me first is how Stieglitz coaxes this scene out of the gloom, finding such life in the stark greys, blacks and whites. It’s about process; the process of building a skyscraper, but also the photographic process itself. Look at the texture of the clouds, and the raw, almost brutalist form of the building under construction. The metal frame is so delicate against the weight of the sky. Your eye snags on the top right corner, where the clouds are heavy. It’s a seemingly simple composition, but it captures a moment of transformation, the city reaching for the sky. It reminds me of some of the urban landscapes that the German artist, Otto Dix was making at around the same time; both artists depicting the changing face of the modern city, with all its energy and anxiety. Neither offers a definitive statement, and that’s why the work endures.