Summer Reflections

Sometimes, slowing down is all it takes

Jun 30, 2025

Alfred Stieglitz, Apples and Gable, Lake George, 1922.

Can you believe it’s almost July?

Summertime is in full swing here in Madison. We hiked nine miles at one of our favorite spots on Saturday, and it felt great to be out among the trees. Our garden is starting to pop, and last night, as a thunderstorm was rolling in, the fireflies made their first appearance in the backyard. I love this time of year. It’s hot and humid, sure, but it’s also beautiful and relaxing. I’m feeling grateful today.

As July approaches, it feels like an occasion to take stock and appreciate the beauty that surrounds us. A curator friend,

George Slade

, shared this Alfred Stieglitz picture with me over the weekend, and I can’t take my eyes off it. I love quiet pictures. They calm me down and put me in a reflective place. Sometimes photographs don’t have to do a lot to move you. “Apples and Gable” is a stunner.

George sent me down a rabbit hole on the Museum of Modern Art website, and I came across this description, which is excerpted from MoMA Highlights: 375 Works from The Museum of Modern Art, published in 2019:

This picture may be read as a symbol—of Eve’s temptation in the Garden of Eden, perhaps, or of harmony between nature and humankind—yet it presents itself as an immediate, sensual experience. You can almost feel yourself reaching up to the apples covered with dew and ripe for the picking.

Stieglitz was fifty-eight years old when he made this photograph at his family’s estate in Lake George, New York, where he spent his summers from childhood to old age. At the turn of the twentieth century, it had seemed to him that photography, if it were to become an art, must emulate the other arts and so restrain or disguise its earthbound realism. Later, in the 1920s, he helped to prove in his own photographs that engaging the stubborn specificity of his medium was itself a fine art.

I know some of you must be Steiglitz fans (I certainly am). The museum has published 130 of his photographs online — you can view them here.

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Peach Pictures!

Every summer, my neighbor Sue and I split a box of peaches from Tree-Ripe Fruit Co. She called over the backyard fence on Saturday night to announce that this year’s shipment had arrived. It’s always such a treat to unbox these things. Peaches are so colorful and gorgeous, and I make a picture of them every year. I posted this one in my Notes, and photographer

Rob Stephenson

replied with this image by Joel Meyerowitz. I think you’ll agree, it is a perfect summation of the season:

Last summer, I considered curating a round-up of peach-themed pictures, and I never got around to it. Rob has inspired me to do it this year, so if you have any peach photography in your archive, please email me. I want to see your work!

Call for COLOR Redux

I am so grateful to those of you who have emailed submissions to my Call for COLOR. Like this gem by Matt Cosby — I love it!

After giving it some thought, I’ve decided not to curate a single show of color photographs but to introduce a rolling feature to the newsletter, something along the lines of what I do with Five Photographers or my Show & Tell series.

This new feature will showcase periodic selections of color photography to brighten your inbox. This way, I can show some inspiring color photography in the newsletter on an ongoing basis, rather than all at once. If you have something colorful in your archive to share, please email me.

Summer Reflections

Sometimes, slowing down is all it takes

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