House, Leaves and Tree 1934

Alfred Stieglitz made this gelatin silver print of a house, leaves and tree. It’s a house, right, but it could also be a feeling. The camera finds a gentle place, a shady porch in the summertime, so you can almost feel the cool wood under your bare feet. The rocking chair looks like it's waiting for someone to come sit and think. I wonder what Stieglitz was thinking? I bet he was staring out at those leaves and that tree, trying to catch the light just right, because you know it shifts so fast. The way everything is composed makes me think of other artists, like the painter Fairfield Porter, who also liked to make art about what was right in front of him. It reminds me that being an artist is like having a conversation with all these other folks across time.