Photographer Alfred Stieglitz subscribed
to a theory that the principal subject of a photo should be in sharp focus
while secondary elements should be left out of focus. The theory was called
naturalism because it was thought that these types of photographs
most closely resembled the way the human eye naturally sees things, focusing
on one area while surrounding details fall away. In Spring Showers,
New York, Stieglitz let the weather keep the photos background
slightly out of focus, then added to the effect when he printed the negative
by keeping the area in low contrast and evenly toned.
Controlled soft-focus effects like those in this picture are not to be
confused with out of focus photographs. If this picture were out of focus
the tree in the foreground would lack its sharp definition. It is just
that definition, balanced with the soft gray in the background, that gives
this photo its delicate feeling. Photographers at the turn of the century
ridiculed their colleagues who produced out of focus pictures by calling
their style the Fuzzy Wuzzy School.
The sanitation worker in the left side of the picture is not the subject;
he provides visual weight. Without him, the off-center and
slightly tilting tree combined with the curbs diagonal line to the
right would throw the picture out of balance.
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