Untitled 1930

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph sometime in the early part of the 20th century. It's a cityscape, probably of New York, a city he seems to have loved. Looking at this photograph, you can tell Stieglitz must have been up high, maybe on a rooftop himself, to capture this view. I imagine him carefully composing the shot, thinking about how the light hits those buildings and the water tower, and how the clouds sit behind it all. There is a certain stillness here, a feeling of watching a city breathe. Think about what Stieglitz was trying to do at the time – he was part of a movement that wanted photography to be seen as art, not just documentation. You could see the influence of painters here - the way he plays with light and shadow. To me, Stieglitz is not just showing us a city; he's showing us how he sees it, feels it. It’s like a visual poem. And in that sense, the image feels so modern.