Lake George 1922

This photograph, Lake George, was made by Alfred Stieglitz, using who knows what photographic process. But what I notice, right away, is the tension between the solid darks of the forground and that glowering sky. The textures here feel almost painterly. Look at the heavy, almost velvety blacks of the trees. I can almost feel the weight of the light as it struggles to penetrate those looming clouds. My eye keeps going to that horizontal shimmer on the lake, bisecting the image and throwing the whole picture into question, like a compositional dare. It reminds me of the dramatic landscapes of someone like Albert Pinkham Ryder. You know, art isn't just about answers; it's about posing the right questions. And Stieglitz, like Ryder, asks some really good ones.