Herbert J. Seligmann 1921

This photograph of Herbert J. Seligmann was taken by Alfred Stieglitz, using his camera as a kind of paintbrush. I can imagine him in the darkroom, coaxing the image out of the chemicals, the sepia tones slowly emerging like a memory. What was it like to be in that room with Stieglitz, in front of his lens? Look at Seligmann’s eyes. There's a real person in there, looking back at us through time. And then there's the reflection behind him, a ghost of the present moment already fading into the past. There’s a dialogue happening here between photographer and subject, between light and shadow, between presence and absence. Stieglitz was always pushing the boundaries of what photography could do, using light and shadow to sculpt form and evoke feeling, the same way a painter uses brushstrokes. He was part of a long conversation that started with the old masters and continues to this day. It's a conversation about seeing, about feeling, about what it means to be human.