Shadow in Lake 1916

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph, "Shadow in Lake," with light, water, and a curious eye. It’s a study in dark and light, a kind of ghostly self-portrait emerging from the depths. I imagine Stieglitz standing there, camera in hand, contemplating his own reflection. He sees not just an image but an abstraction, a figure almost swallowed by the landscape. It’s a painterly gesture, a shadow becoming a brushstroke. There’s a conversation here with artists like Rodin or even the later work of Guston, where figures dissolve into form. This image could almost be a Rorschach test. What do we see in the shadows? Perhaps it's a comment on the fleeting nature of identity, or a meditation on the artist’s place within the vastness of nature. What I see is a reminder that art is as much about seeing as it is about being seen.