Ellen Koeniger, Lake George 1916

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph, "Ellen Koeniger, Lake George," as a print from a negative, and you can see how the tones cascade from light to dark. Think about how each tone holds a quality of light, and how it reflects off skin and water. The contrast is gorgeous here, like thick strokes of oil paint. Look at the little droplets of water, they are each caught in a moment of time, almost suspended, like frozen moments of joy. It’s the kind of image that stops you in your tracks. The darks are so velvety, they suck you in. Stieglitz and his set were really interested in elevating photography to the level of painting, so in that sense, think about the early work of Gerhard Richter. Stieglitz, like Richter after him, saw photography as this fluid, changeable medium. The potential to create something new was always there.