Bailey Bast
Alfred Stieglitz "Georgia O'Keeffe—Hands and Horse Skull" 1931
Silver Gelatin Print
Stieglitz created a series of images of his wife Georgia O'Keeffe, specifically focusing on her hands. He focuses on O'Keeffe's hands because she is a painter, and her hands are crucial to her art. Rather than creating a portrait of what a person looks like, Stieglitz shows who a person is, focusing on gestures, emotions, and expression to create an image of the life of the subject. This particular image drew my attention because of the contrast between dark and light, soft and hard. I enjoy the calmness of her hands juxtaposed to the ideas of death and decay. Her hands create life, but in them she a dry, cracked image of death. In a way, her hands both evoke her humanity but their shape appears somewhat inhuman.
