Door to Shanty, Lake George 1934 - 1937

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph of a door to a shanty at Lake George; the surface of the print is dark, with a silver-gelatin finish. Stieglitz, a master of light and shadow, coaxes our eyes to linger on the humble details of the wooden planks and the wild, unruly growth that threatens to swallow the structure. He's pushing the boundaries of photography as fine art! I imagine him carefully composing the shot, waiting for the right moment when the light would reveal the texture and form of the wood. There's a palpable tension between the man-made and the natural, a dialogue between decay and endurance. It reminds me of some of the black-and-white paintings of Gerhard Richter, who, though working in a very different medium, also explores the interplay of realism and abstraction, surface and depth. Isn't it amazing how artists, through their unique ways of seeing, invite us to contemplate the world anew, blurring the lines between representation and interpretation?