Jean Toomer 1925

Here's a gelatin silver print of Jean Toomer by Alfred Stieglitz. What a face! He's looking off to the side, a little wary perhaps, or maybe he's just thinking hard. I wonder what Stieglitz said to him to get that expression? The tones are so beautiful and soft, like a charcoal drawing. It must have been amazing to watch him in the darkroom, coaxing these images into being, playing with light and shadow like a painter mixing colors on a palette. You can see every strand of hair, every little line around his eyes. It's so intimate, like you could reach out and touch him. Stieglitz was obsessed with capturing the essence of a person, not just their likeness. He really knew how to get the inner life out. He knew that art is an ongoing conversation. It's about seeing what others have done and then trying to push it further, to say something new. It's a beautiful thing, this exchange of ideas across time.