Songs of the Sky Q3 c. 1923

Alfred Stieglitz made this gelatin silver print, Songs of the Sky Q3, at an undetermined date. It’s a photograph, but honestly, the tonal range and dreamy quality makes it feel like a charcoal drawing. The way Stieglitz coaxes these wispy, spectral forms from his materials really speaks to the magic of artmaking. It’s a process of discovery, of coaxing something out of nothing. I’m drawn to the way the light seems to emanate from within the cloud formations, how the dark and light areas push and pull against each other. Look at the bottom right, where the cloud seems to fold in on itself. It’s almost like a brushstroke, dense and textured. You can almost feel the atmosphere, the dampness, the sheer volume of the sky. He reminds me of Gerhard Richter, who used photography as source material for his paintings. But where Richter obscures and abstracts, Stieglitz seems to want to capture the fleeting, ephemeral quality of the sky. Art isn't about answers, it's about opening up new ways of seeing, feeling, and thinking.