Portrait of Georgia, No. 3 or Songs of the Sky 1923

Here is a photograph by Alfred Stieglitz, who, let's face it, was obsessed with Georgia O'Keeffe. This photograph has a luminous, dark quality, like a charcoal drawing. Stieglitz captures the clouds with a sense of immediacy, as though the image was pulled from the sky, like a memory or a feeling. I can imagine him looking up, framing the shot, waiting for the light to be just right. What was he thinking about when he made this? Was he thinking about Georgia? What does she mean to him? Are the clouds a metaphor for her? Are they his muse, his desire, his longing? The moody tones evoke a romantic sensibility reminiscent of 19th-century landscape painting. The light is soft, almost diffused, and the clouds have a soft, pillowy texture. A wonderful example of how artists inspire each other across mediums and time.