The Beach, Katwyk Possibly 1894 - 1934

This photograph, The Beach, Katwyk, was created by Alfred Stieglitz. The image is a soft, grey wash of sky, sea and land. I wonder what it was like to stand there with Stieglitz and see the world through his eyes and through the lens of his camera? You can feel how the light is diffused, almost as if it's been filtered through a layer of tracing paper, creating a dreamlike vision of the scene. The horizon line disappears. The waves reach the shore and flatten, mirroring the shapes in the sky. The fishing boats on the right of the frame create a strong diagonal line which is balanced by the figures gathered on the beach to the left, and the tracks in the foreground lead you into the pictorial space. Perhaps Stieglitz was trying to capture a fleeting moment. It must have been so interesting to witness the way the world looked and felt to him.