This is a work by Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946), American photographer and art promoter. He worked tirelessly to promote photography as an art form, on par with painting and sculpture. He rejected academic definitions of art, never referring to his own work as “art” (though he did consider himself an artist with a camera), but rather as “work.” He famously declared, “I was born in Hoboken. I am an American. Photography is my passion. The search for Truth my obsession.”
There does seem to me to be a lot of “Truth” in this photo; here, he has captured, not a pose, but a moment in time.
