Spiritual America

Alfred Stieglitz's views of photography began to shift dramatically after the First World War. Photographs were no longer simply a reflection of the subject depicted, but also an expression of the photographer's ideas. Stieglitz made this image of a harnessed and castrated horse as a metaphor for early-1920s America, which he perceived as materialist and culturally bankrupt. The animal's hind legs are framed to highlight its restrained muscular energy and the eradication of its sexual power.