The Interior Landscape

21   On Equivalence, Expression, and Art

Equivalency is the ability to use the visual world as the plastic material for the photographer’s expressive purposes.

—Minor White

Following an exhibit of his photographic portraits, Alfred Stieglitz was jarred when a critic suggested that the power of the photographs came from a hypnotic power Stieglitz exerted over his models. Recognizing he did not actually have such powers, Stieglitz nonetheless wished to understand where the “hypnotizing” effect came from: What quality in his photographs made them express more than just the likenesses of recognizable subjects and allowed them also to express ulterior, subjective meanings such as emotions, moods, and ideas. To test his theory, Stieglitz wanted ...