Equivalent, Set C2 No. 3 1929

Editor: This is "Equivalent, Set C2 No. 3", a photograph by Alfred Stieglitz from 1929. It’s…moody, almost oppressive, with those swirling dark clouds. What strikes you most when you look at it? Curator: Oppressive is interesting! It doesn’t strike me that way, though I see how you get there. What *does* strike me is how he found abstraction in something as ubiquitous as the sky. Stieglitz famously said these cloud photos were "equivalents" to his own feelings, his own soul, if you will. What do you suppose he was feeling at that moment? Editor: Maybe a little lost? I mean, those clouds look so turbulent. Is that a little patch of sunlight struggling to get through at the bottom? Curator: Indeed. Now, *that* sunlight tells a different story, doesn't it? Perhaps not lost, but striving? I wonder if he intended them to be a Rorschach test of sorts, a mirror reflecting the viewer’s emotional state. Think about the fact that he divorced Georgia O'Keefe during this period. Does this affect how you look at the picture? Editor: Wow, I hadn’t thought about that! Knowing that… well, it adds another layer, doesn’t it? A layer of personal turmoil. The clouds could represent that. I see a connection between his life and how he interpreted the clouds. Curator: Precisely! And that, perhaps, is the point. Stieglitz wasn't just showing us clouds; he was showing us *himself*. The radicalness of claiming that nature *is* subjective experience... mind blowing! Now I'm in turmoil *and* I love it! Editor: It's fascinating to consider how an artist's personal life can influence their work, and how that work, in turn, can influence us. It's almost a conversation across time, isn't it?