Equivalent 1927

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph, Equivalent, and the process of capturing light and shadow, of course, is key. It’s incredible how the swirling grays build up this vista of clouds, but it’s really the modulations and the tones that interest me, and the way it feels almost like a drawing. It's almost as if he's drawing with light. Look at that dark, almost diagonal mark in the centre. It's like a brushstroke, isn't it? I think the texture, the grain, the way the light seems to glow from within, gives it this incredible presence, as it's not just an image, but an object in itself. There is something about this that feels like an early Gerhard Richter to me, or maybe even a Cy Twombly, but the fact that it's a photograph and not a painting somehow makes it more elusive. It's like he's trying to capture something that's beyond the visible world, something emotional or spiritual, and doing it with a machine! It really gets you thinking about the nature of art.