Songs of the Sky W7 1924

Alfred Stieglitz made this gelatin silver print, Songs of the Sky W7, without any date. It’s a cloudscape, a dark hill. I love how this image just lets the tones do their thing. Stieglitz’s sky isn’t really about illustrating a sky, but about finding shapes and shades that talk to each other. He’s letting the darks and lights dance. It's all about relationships, almost like people chatting at a party. You know, it reminds me of some of Gerhard Richter's landscapes, that same kind of searching for something beyond just what's in front of you. It’s like Stieglitz is saying, “Hey, clouds can be about more than just clouds.” He shows us that everything—photography, painting, life—is really just a conversation.