Equivalent O3

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph, Equivalent O3, sometime in the first half of the 20th century, using who knows what kind of camera and chemicals. The tones range from velvety blacks to hazy greys, like a charcoal drawing but with that photographic crispness. What strikes me is the immediacy, the dark smudges, the way the light seems to push through the clouds. You can almost feel the dampness in the air. It’s like looking at a Rothko, but instead of layers of paint, we have layers of atmosphere. Look how Stieglitz coaxes the light to form the shapes, like that small patch of brightness in the lower left corner, which is like a key to the whole image. It reminds me of Gerhard Richter’s cloud paintings, but stripped down to its most elemental form. The work becomes a testament to how much feeling can be evoked with so little. It’s not just a picture of clouds; it’s a picture of feeling.