Sixth Avenue, New York c. 1920s

This is a photograph called Sixth Avenue, New York, by Clara Sipprell. It’s so atmospheric. The whole scene is drenched in a misty, almost dreamy light. I can imagine Sipprell, out on the street with her camera, probably a large format, trying to capture the city's essence, its grit and its grandeur. The elevated train tracks loom overhead like a skeletal beast, and the cars below look like dark little beetles crawling along the wet street. What was Sipprell thinking about when she made this photograph? Was she drawn to the patterns of light and shadow, or was she trying to say something about the city and its inhabitants? Sipprell has a whole body of portraits and landscapes, very pictorial, very beautiful. She’s in dialog with people like Stieglitz and Steichen, but doing her own thing. All these artists are talking to each other, across time, inspiring one another, and changing our ways of seeing.