Alfred Stieglitz

I received a lovely early birthday present from my friends, Alan and Darla - a first edition collection of various portraits of Georgia O'Keeffe by Alfred Stieglitz. The photographs are beautiful. I especially love the one with the black hat. O'Keeffe wrote the forward and her use of language is a lot like her paintings - simple yet striking, often referencing the natural world and with flashes of a quirky kind of poetry and passion simmering below the surface. Here's an excerpt:
"He thought aloud and his opinion about anything in the morning might be quite different by afternoon, so that people quoting him might make contradictory statements. There was such a power when he spoke - people seemed to believe what he said, even when he knew it wasn't their truth. He molded his hearer. They were often speechless....There was a constant grinding like the ocean. It was as if something hot, dark, and destructive was hitched to the highest, brightest star."