New York from 405 E 54th Street 1936 - 1937

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph, New York from 405 E 54th Street, with gelatin silver. Look at how the tones shift like the movement of thought. You can tell that Stieglitz was concerned with the alchemy of light and shadow, of surface and depth. The texture feels almost tactile, doesn't it? Like you could reach out and touch the grimy brick and steel. In the foreground, there's this cluster of old buildings, and they almost seem to merge into one another. Your eye is drawn across and into the shot. The dark smokestack rises amidst a dome, like a surreal tower, a monument to industry and architecture. This reminds me a little of the work of Charles Sheeler, particularly his photographs of factories and industrial landscapes, which, similarly, find a strange kind of beauty in the stark geometry of the modern world. Ultimately, the artwork embraces ambiguity, inviting us to see the city not just as a physical space, but as a landscape of the imagination.