25/09/2026
The composer, Ernest Bloch, met Alfred Stieglitz in New York in 1917. Decades later, at a dinner in 1950 at the home of Albert Eikus, chair of the Music Department at the University of Calitornia, Berkeley.
Bloch recalled that meeting. Here is Elkus’s sons telling of the story:
At a dinner in New York, Bloch was giving his host Alfred Stieglitz, every reason why photography could not be considered art - why photographers, hence, could not be considered artists. “”Fine, said Stieglitz. meet me at my [gallery]early Sunday morning and we’ll photograph together. They met and went forth with a Graflex camera and tripod.
They stopped at a lower midtown corner whose buildings and sky they both thought promising. Stieglitz set up his camera, focused it, and took a picture. Then he changed plates and, without repositioning the camera, told Bloch it was his turn. Stieglitz timed the exposure identically. They returned to the studio and each developed his plate in the same chemicals with the exact same timing. Bloch saw at once that his cityscape was drab and lifeless, capturing none of the luster he saw in Stieglitz’s “But how can this be? Bloch asked. Stieglitz said. “It is because vou do not love it: you do not believe in it.”
Image: Paul Strand, Rock, Porte Lorne, Nova Scotia, 1919
The Mental Image, by Stephen Shore is available at the bookshop and ships from termita.pt. It is signed by the artist.
