Trees 1924 - 1927

Alfred Stieglitz made this image, ‘Trees’, using photography, and it's a dance of light and shadow. What strikes me is how Stieglitz coaxes a painting out of his photograph. I imagine him out there, camera in hand, gazing upwards. It’s all about the sky, pregnant with heavy clouds, and those skeletal trees reaching up like supplicants, their bare branches tracing delicate lines against the tumultuous heavens. I bet he had to wait for a specific moment, where the light would illuminate those branches, catching the last few leaves. The sky feels thick, like impasto, mirroring the artist’s own swirling thoughts and feelings. The tonal range, from the deepest blacks to the softest grays, is so poetic. I can feel the cool air, the stillness of the moment, the silent dialogue between earth and sky. Painters and photographers? We're all just trying to capture something elusive, aren't we? To make something that resonates, that speaks to the messy, beautiful complexity of being alive.