Songs of the Sky D9
1923
Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet (trimmed to image): 11.8 x 9.2 cm (4 5/8 x 3 5/8 in.) mount: 34.2 x 27.6 cm (13 7/16 x 10 7/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Alfred Stieglitz Collection
Accession Number
1949.3.877
Art Historical Context
Alfred Stieglitz's *Songs of the Sky D* (1923) captures the ethereal beauty of clouds in a small yet profound gelatin silver print, measuring just 11.8 x 9.2 cm on a much larger 342 x 27.6 mount. As a pioneer of modern photography, Stieglitz transitioned from Pictorialism's soft-focus aesthetic to "straight photography," advocating for the medium as a art. This image belongs to his renowned "Equivalents" series1922–1934), where he photographed clouds without horizons or references, treating them as abstract equivalents to human emotions and music—hence the poetic title evoking celestial sympho...
About the Artist
Alfred Stieglitz · 1864–1946
Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) was a pioneering American photographer, art dealer, publisher, and advocate for the Modernist movement who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, to German Jewish immigrant parents, Stieglitz spent his formative years studying mechanical engineering in Berlin, where he discovered photography in ...