Georgia O'Keeffe—Torso 1931

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph, titled *Georgia O'Keeffe—Torso*, with gelatin silver. In Stieglitz's time, the art world was shifting, with more female artists like O’Keeffe gaining recognition amidst cultural debates about gender and representation. Stieglitz’s photographs of O’Keeffe challenged conventional nudes. They presented her not just as a model but as a modern, independent woman. Stieglitz focused on form and texture, abstracting O'Keeffe's body into a landscape of curves and light. The images sparked controversy. Some critics celebrated them as honest portrayals of female beauty, while others dismissed them as objectifying. O’Keeffe herself had a complex relationship with these photographs. While they contributed to her fame, she also felt that they sometimes overshadowed her own work. She once remarked that Stieglitz "photographed me until I was exhausted." Stieglitz’s work invites us to reflect on the power dynamics between artist and model, and how images can shape identity and perception.