Stieglitz and O'Keeffe

Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864–1946), Georgia O'Keeffe, 1921. Palladium print. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of Georgia O'Keeffe through the generosity of The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation and Jennifer and Joseph Duke, 1997 (1997.61.19)

“His idea of a portrait was not just one picture. His dream was to start with a child at birth and photograph that child in all of its activities as it grew to be a person and on throughout its adult life. As a portrait it would be a photographic diary."

—Georgia O'Keeffe, 1978

This photo of Georgia O'Keefe is one of some 300 taken by her one-time husband, Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz attempted to create a complex composite portrait of O'Keefe, and denounced the idea that any single image could represent a holistic identity. Only through amassing a photographic compilation could he approximate the sense of portraying a complex self.

In this image, we can't see O'Keeffe's face; her identifying features are obscured, but the photographer emphasizes body parts that are central to the artist's identity: her hands. These deft, agile fingers, held here with such deliberateness, created beautiful, important works, and for O'Keeffe, may have been just as important as her eyes or nose. Like these sensory organs, they were ways in which she perceived—and created—the world. The image is not at all obscene, but is highly erotic: the languid arch of her neck and protrusion of her clavicle are sensual without being explicitly sexual. Even at this cropped range, which omits any of the body parts that usually signal sexuality, O’Keeffe is elegant, mysterious, and alluring.

Source:

"Alfred Stieglitz: Georgia O'Keeffe (1997.61.19)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1997.61.19 (October 2006)