Steiglitz' Clouds

[Bill Burk]

I don't either. But that's not what Steiglitz claims Bloch said or did.

Poetic! Poetic License! Man, that is Poetic License!

[Bill Burk]

I don't have any trouble believing that a composer would see a series of nature photos and equate it to music.

On what Steiglitz claimed... In all probability Bloch said something similar to what Steiglitz had in mind (but not literally verbatim).

But Steiglitz claimed more, verbatim he said. The story packs punch and perks up your ears.

I went into the sierra with the story in mind, I aimed the camera at the sky more than once. And when I did, the words "music, man that is music" went through my mind.

Suppose Steiglitz had written a tame account of Bloch's reaction.

It would have never entered my mind.

[Jim Jones]

Edward Weston said it better, "Whenever I can feel a Bach fugue in my work I know I have arrived.” Perhaps Bloch is more appropriate for Steiglitz, though.

[paulr]

But his writing often contains what some would call hyperbole and others would call complete fiction. This famous account of Bloch's supposed statements upon seeing the cloud photographs falls in one of those categories IMHO (and the opinion of others).

Szarkowski writes a lot about of this tendency, and specifically about the Equivalents, in his essay in the expedition catalog for Alfred Stieglitz at Lake George. He takes a historical look at Stieglitz's claims on why he took those photographs and what they were about ... there are seven or eight wildly diferent ones, and most are incompatible with each other.

"Music! Man, that is music!" became a kind of stock punch line for my friends and me many years back.

[Heroique]

Steiglitz’ Clouds

…Steiglitz…

…Steiglitz…Steiglitz…

…Steiglitz…

…Stiegltiz’s…

…Steiglitz…

…Steiglitz…Steiglitz…Steiglitz…Steiglitz…

...Steiglitz...

John, Michael, Brian, Ken, Darin, Bill, and Jim – Please go to the blackboard and write “I will spell Stieglitz correctly in the future.” 100 times. Bill, that’s 200 times for you.

Paul, no homework for you tonight.

[paulr]

Paul Strand's comment was that they're not equivalent to anything -- they're just ordinary pictures of clouds.

That's hilarious. Do you remember where you saw that?

[Bill Burk]

Stieglitz 200 times - I can't beleive I did that.

Here's an experiment...

paulr,

I often envision what you would say in reaction to seeing one of my prints.

I just sent Brian Ellis a pm with my prediction of what you will say when you see this.

What's your reaction? After paulr gives it, Brian - you can share the pm...

Cloud with Aspens
Bill Burk, 2008

[Heroique]

I predict Paul will say that the style & intended message were exhausted long ago by the Masters and are no longer credible in our post-post-modernist world.

[Darin Boville]

What Happened to Ken Lee's post--I was responding to it and the browser got all weird so I came back in and it is gone! Did *I* do that?

Anyway, Ken was joking that copying old masters was cool. Here's one of mine (not LF but certainly not handheld):

[Brian Ellis]

John, Michael, Brian, Ken, Darin, Bill, and Jim – Please go to the blackboard and write “I will spell Stieglitz correctly in the future.” 100 times. Bill, that’s 200 times for you.

Paul, no homework for you tonight.

Thanks. From now on I'll try to remember "i before e in Stieglitz photography."