Art, at its most meaning level, represented for Stieglitz a symbolical and equivalent of man’s most profound and acute power to see. Not what one feels one should see. Or what others have seen. But what one truly and most sacredly experiences oneself. Of equal importance: One’s ‘seeing’ must be communicated in reverent spirit, with deepest respect both for what is portrayed and for the materials with which one works.

~ D Norman (Alfred Stieglitz, Masters of Photography:  Aperture)