Songs of the Sky or Equivalent 1923 - 1929

Editor: Alfred Stieglitz's gelatin silver print, "Songs of the Sky or Equivalent," from between 1923 and 1929... It's a powerful image, very moody, with dramatic dark and light patterns. What significance do you see in Stieglitz's choice of subject matter and the symbols he’s employing? Curator: Stieglitz's clouds are more than just meteorological phenomena. Consider how often the sky symbolizes something beyond itself – freedom, transcendence, even the divine. Here, he is photographing not just clouds, but feelings. Stieglitz titled this series “Equivalents” to propose that the shapes and shades in the clouds could be equivalents for human emotions, inner states. What emotions do these cloud formations evoke in you? Editor: There’s a sense of both drama and peace... maybe a hint of melancholy? The high contrast definitely contributes to that. I guess that's the human connection, our internal lives reflected in nature. Curator: Precisely! Stieglitz moved away from objective representation towards evoking feelings. Consider how the Romantics saw nature as sublime – overwhelming yet awe-inspiring. What symbols and imagery strike you as carrying emotional or psychological weight? Editor: I'd say the cloud shapes, their amorphous nature makes me think of shifting emotions, something intangible but powerful, which comes through because of the monochrome. So the absence of color helps that interpretation? Curator: Absolutely. He strips away the literal, inviting us to focus on form and tonal gradations, prompting a dialogue between the internal landscape and the external one. It's fascinating how such an apparently simple image can hold such depth. Editor: I never considered photography as being able to convey emotions like this. I’ll definitely be paying more attention to how artists use symbols in photography moving forward!