Rose Pastor Stokes 1909

Clarence H. White made this photograph, Rose Pastor Stokes, at the beginning of the 20th century. The woman is captured with such a soft focus, the tonality close to monochrome – like charcoal, ink or graphite. I wonder what Rose was thinking when she stood there? How did she feel the air moving around her? How did her body move in that space? The softness makes me think of quietness, an introspective moment by the sea. Painters always think about light, how it defines a form, and how it dissolves one. White uses light in a similar way, not in sharp contrasts but in a range of closely related greys. You can sense the influence of painters like Whistler in this image, but also, perhaps, it looks forward to photographers such as Stieglitz. Artists have always inspired each other and continue to do so. Photography here embraces a certain ambiguity, not to give us a single reading but to open our eyes to multiple meanings.