Rebecca Salsbury Strand 1922

Alfred Stieglitz made this gelatin silver print, "Rebecca Salsbury Strand," and what grabs me is how he's turned the body into a landscape of light and shadow. I think Stieglitz was onto something here, not just capturing a likeness, but really diving into form. It’s as if the artist is sculpting with light, finding this amazing push and pull between the curves of the body and the water glistening over it. You can almost feel the cool of the water, the weight of the body. It's tactile, even though it's a photograph. I see echoes of classic nudes, but also a real modernist eye, stripping things down to pure shape. It reminds me of Georgia O'Keeffe’s flowers—close-up, intimate, and speaking volumes about seeing. It's this way of seeing anew, finding abstraction in the everyday. That’s the thing about art: each piece is a step in a long conversation. Stieglitz was listening, responding, and seeing in his own way.