Equivalent 1925

Curator: It looks like a charcoal sketch gone wild. Is this supposed to be turbulent, ominous weather, or something more gentle? Editor: This is "Equivalent," a photograph by Alfred Stieglitz taken in 1925. Curator: Ah, Stieglitz. Known for his cloud photos. Still, that sky looks bruised. Editor: Stieglitz termed these his "Equivalents," aiming for abstraction—clouds standing in for inner states, or perhaps, for grander ideas about America. Photography as a means of personal and artistic expression. Curator: Expression? More like escape! Skies always offer such drama, especially in monochrome. I bet the photographic process of that time also lent a unique texture... you can almost feel the grain, the chemical interactions...the labor! Editor: Absolutely, we often overlook the physical act of creation in photography. The manipulation of light, chemicals, the darkroom processes all were material actions with consequence. There is craft inherent here, elevating it beyond a mere representation. Curator: Makes me think, though—isn't it interesting that he thought of clouds as symbols, or substitutes for emotions, at a time of rapid industrialization, a burgeoning, mechanized world? Escaping the material reality. Editor: Perhaps he felt art could offer respite. However, these photographs themselves are also commodities; printed, displayed, bought, and sold, always tethered to capitalism. Curator: True enough. But I see a real longing. The sky here has the depth, that weight, to swallow us all. Editor: Well, it's certainly given me food for thought. This simple image provokes interesting discussion about emotion, industry, materiality and art's place within that complex equation. Curator: Yes, I now see past the clouds, through the labor and emotion... perhaps, straight to a ghost of Stieglitz himself!