Donald Davidson c. 1930

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph of Donald Davidson, and well, it’s kinda timeless, isn’t it? The light seems pretty direct, the kind that etches every line and shadow into stark relief. You know, looking at this portrait, I'm thinking about Stieglitz's obsession with capturing the essence of a person or a place through the camera. Maybe he was trying to peel back the layers and get to some kind of raw truth? I can imagine Stieglitz circling Davidson, adjusting his lens, waiting for the right moment, for something real to flicker across his face. There is something both intimate and distant about this image, I wonder what Davidson was thinking, standing there in front of the camera? I feel like I want to know so much more, and yet there’s something about the ambiguity that keeps pulling me back.