Songs of the Sky
1923
Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 9.4 x 12 cm (3 11/16 x 4 3/4 in.) sheet: 10 x 12.2 cm (3 15/16 x 4 13/16 in.) mount: 34.2 x 27.5 cm (13 7/16 x 10 13/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Alfred Stieglitz Collection
Accession Number
1949.3.1135
Art Historical Context
Alfred Stieglitz's "Songs of the Sky" (1923) is a small yet evocative gelatin silver print that reflects the artist's pioneering role in establishing photography as a fine art. A leading figure in early 20th-century American modernism, Stieglitz helped found the Photo-Secession movement and later championed "straight photography," emphasizing the camera's unique ability to capture form, light, and emotion without heavy manipulation. This intimate work, with its image measuring just 9.4 by 12 cm, belongs to his later explorations of nature as a vehicle for personal expression. The gelatin silv...
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 ...