The Aeroplane Possibly 1910 - 1911

Curator: At first glance, it evokes a feeling of uncertainty—the grey scale blurring the lines between dream and reality. Editor: I'm struck by how heavy and substantial the air feels, almost viscous. This isn't just about capturing a machine; it’s about the relationship between human technology and the natural world, evidenced by the soft grayscale of a gelatin silver print. Curator: Indeed. This is Alfred Stieglitz's "The Aeroplane," likely taken around 1910 or 1911, a period rife with technological advancement and, naturally, its attendant anxieties and hopes. Editor: The focus on material shifts expectations, doesn’t it? To see this early machine framed as almost… handcrafted. What materials were crucial in constructing both this physical aircraft, and the cultural aspirations it symbolized? Curator: Aviation was mythologized instantly; it symbolized transcending earthly bounds, the fulfillment of Icarus's dream and a break with gravity—with all its connotations. It appeared as this daring feat, almost literally ‘raising up.’ Editor: But even that mythmaking was shaped by social realities. What laborers and resources contributed to this symbolic lift-off? There’s an implication of romantic transcendence, but how does that play out on the ground for those who made the dream possible? Curator: Stieglitz himself was fascinated with technology's impact on the modern psyche. This image captures more than just an aeroplane. The plane here appears as something of a strange figure in the heavens, silhouetted against a hazy sky—like some sort of omen. It invites consideration of whether the machine enhances human potential or overwhelms it. Editor: Right, and seeing it presented through pictorialism softens its impact. This image is very different from more hard-edged or glorifying industrial photos. The soft focus here is really critical for evoking emotion and blurring fact and sensation together in ways which speak to art production processes. Curator: Ultimately, Stieglitz delivers the aircraft with its cultural valence still unwritten. He positions the image as a blank page for the new century, awaiting the story of what flight may mean, a symbolic vessel pregnant with cultural meaning. Editor: A perfect embodiment, I think, of the interplay between the symbolic and the material forces at play in any act of technological and artistic creation. The tangible resources needed for that machine, that dream, still tether it to earth.