Sunday, Fifth Avenue and Fifty-Seventh Street, New York c. 1893 - 1934

Alfred Stieglitz made this gelatin silver print called "Sunday, Fifth Avenue and Fifty-Seventh Street, New York," and just imagining him back then, lugging his camera gear through the slushy streets of old New York, I feel a kinship. The muted tones, the stark contrast between the dark carriage and the light reflecting off the wet street – it's like he's painting with light. You can almost feel the cold dampness seeping into your bones. He's capturing a moment, sure, but it's also about the mood, the feeling of the city, of the world changing. The horse’s muscular frame—it’s got that Duchamp "Nude Descending a Staircase" kind of feeling. The way Stieglitz frames the image, it's like he's inviting us to contemplate not just what we see, but how we see it. And that’s what artists do, isn’t it? They show us new ways of seeing and feeling.