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Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Equivalent

Photograph
1926 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Stieglitz, Alfred (photographer)

A black and white photograph of a cloudscape.

Object details

Category
Photographs
Object type
Photograph
Titles
  • Equivalent (assigned by artist)
  • Songs of the Sky / Equivalent (assigned by artist)
  • Equivalents (series title)
Materials and techniques
gelatin silver print
Photographic Paper
Photography
Gelatin Silver Process
Brief description
Photograph by Alfred Stieglitz, 'Equivalent', gelatin silver print, 1926
Physical description
A black and white photograph of a cloudscape.
Dimensions
  • Image height: 116mm
  • Image width: 92mm
  • Sheet height: 34.5cm
  • Sheet width: 27.2cm
Gallery label
This photograph by Stieglitz shows only the sky. The series of images demonstrates that remarkable photographs need not rely on unusual subjects. The images were intended to evoke a psychological or emotional state in the viewer. On the reverse of some of the prints in this series, Stieglitz wrote ‘all ways are up’. The phrase seems both to answer a practical concern, and to hint at the answer to a metaphysical question.
(11 03 2014)
Gallery 100, ‘History of photography’, 2012-2013, label texts :

Alfred Stieglitz (1864 – 1946)
‘Equivalent’
1923 – 9

These photographs by Stieglitz show only the sky.
They demonstrate that remarkable photographs
need not rely on unusual subjects. The images were
intended to evoke a psychological or emotional state
in the viewer. On the reverse of some of the prints in
this series, Stieglitz wrote ‘all ways are up’. The phrase
seems both to answer a practical concern, and to hint
at the answer to a metaphysical question.

Gelatin silver prints
Museum nos. Ph.367, 368, 370-1982

Object history
One of seven (Ph.366 to 370-1980 and Ph.1384 to 1385-1980) from the series 'Equvalents'. Studies of clouds and sun taken between 1927 and 1936.
The following is an abstract from "Alfred Stieglitz's photography of clouds ('Equivalents') by Sarah Eden Greenough, a PhD dissertation from the University of New Mexico: "In 1922 Alfred Stieglitz made 10 photographs of clouds, thus beginning a series of photographs that occupied his attention for the next eight years. The Equivalents, as he came to call them, have been hailed as his most important contribution to photography. His aim was not to distill the essence of clouds but to transform them into an abstract language of form expressive of his feelings."
In "Alfred Stieglitz & Lake George. The American Place", History of Photography, Summer 1991, Graham Clarke suggests that the Equivalents represented for Stieglitz "A spiritual continuum untouched by 'the hand of man'".
Subject depicted
Clouds
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Sara Eden Greenough Alfred Stieglitz's photographs of clouds ('Equivalents') University of New Mexico, PhD, 1984
  • Dorothy Norman, Alfred Stieglitz: An American Seer Aperture Books, New York, 1973.
  • Jonathan Green History of Photography, col 15, no. 2, Summer 1991
  • "The Collection of Dorothy Norman", Aperture, vol 124 (pp.50-55), Summer 1991.
  • Evelyn Roth "From 291 to an American Place: a demonstration of the Stieglitz aesthetic", American Photographer, vol 18 (p.33), June 1987.
  • Greenough, Sarah. Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2002., vol. 2, 1012 pp., iIl. ISBN 0810935333
Other number
1172 - Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
PH.368-1982

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Record createdJanuary 12, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O182339/equivalent-photograph-stieglitz-alfred/
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