false equivalence (2024–)

Alfred Stieglitz began his Equivalents series in 1922, photographing clouds above Lake George, New York. First named Music and later Songs of the Sky, the images represented a seismic shift in photography from literalism to abstraction. Stieglitz's thoughts on the work evolved through his life, but it has since been understood that the images of Equivalents are meant to be
'equivalent' to his emotional state when he captured them—that, in seeing them displayed, a viewer might be able to feel the same way he felt.

False Equivalence is an homage, and a rebuttal. My study of Stieglitz is what led me further into abstraction—but I have no such beliefs about a photograph embodying a feeling. The works exists as they are, equivalent to nothing. A cloud is a cloud, regardless of how it is presented.

But not all clouds are visible. The clouds of False Equivalence are faint, almost imperceptible, until the images have been processed. The camera’s view is not equivalent to the human eye; it can see what we cannot.

details.

Platinum/palladium prints on cotton rag paper
4 x 5 in. (10.2 x 12.7 cm)
Unique