Sunday Afternoon—From My Window, 1111 Madison Avenue, Looking South c. 1901 - 1932

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph, ‘Sunday Afternoon—From My Window, 1111 Madison Avenue, Looking South,’ using gelatin silver, and what I like about it is the layering of tones, a really sophisticated use of blacks, whites and greys. Look how Stieglitz captures the city from above. The eye navigates the grid of streets and sidewalks, fences and buildings, picking out little human dramas. I like the way he uses the out-of-focus foreground to create depth. The image rewards slow looking. Take that woman pushing a stroller to the left. She is almost a shadow, a dark mark against the lighter sidewalk. And then over to the right, the trolley is rendered with such beautiful detail. It feels like a real New York moment, a quiet afternoon made monumental through Stieglitz’s eye. Stieglitz was part of the Photo-Secession movement, which fought for photography to be seen as a fine art, just like painting. It’s a conversation that continues to this day and it is so wonderful that an image like this can ask us to consider photography as a way of seeing and thinking.