Songs of the Sky or Equivalent 1923 - 1929

Alfred Stieglitz captured this gelatin silver print, titled "Songs of the Sky," invoking in it the heavens. What do we see here but clouds, those ever-changing symbols of the sublime and the transient. From ancient mythologies to Renaissance paintings, clouds have represented divine presence, the boundary between the earthly and the celestial. Think of Zeus, the cloud-gatherer of the Greeks, or the floating figures in religious art, often staged amongst billowing clouds to denote their divine status. Now, consider this modern interpretation. Stieglitz strips away overt religious iconography, yet retains the emotional power of the sky. The contrast of light and shadow evokes a primal response, engaging our subconscious memory of storms, of shelter, of the awesome power of nature. The cyclical recurrence of cloud imagery suggests a collective human fascination with the sky, a fascination that transcends time and continues to find new expressions.