Rebecca Salsbury Strand 1922

Alfred Stieglitz made this gelatin silver print of Rebecca Salsbury Strand, sometime in the early 20th century. The tones are so soft, sliding from dark to light with just the gentlest nudge. The light is so important; see how it falls across her body, pools around the groin, emphasizing the swell of her thighs? Look at her feet, crossed at the ankles, toes touching. Everything is so carefully considered. The print itself is small, intimate. Gelatin silver prints have this incredible tonal range, a depth that gives the image a sculptural quality. Stieglitz was a master of this, able to coax the most subtle gradations from the medium. It reminds me of Edward Weston, who could make a pepper look like a Brancusi sculpture. Both Stieglitz and Weston understood that photography, like painting, is a process of seeing and shaping light, transforming the everyday into something transcendent. It’s a conversation that continues to this day, evolving, changing, but always rooted in that fundamental act of looking.