Little Good Harbor, Maine

If you haven’t heard of pioneering 19th century photographer Gertrude Käsebier (American, 1852-1934), you’re not alone–like so many non-male artists who boldly advanced their artistic forms, Käsebier has rarely shown up in syllabi or textbooks. Her foundational Pratt Institute training in drawing and painting is gorgeously present in her wide-ranging photographic work, which touches on and/or predates canon staples like Man Ray, Fra Angelico, Goya, Picasso and Alice Neel. Little Good Harbor, Maine, shot c.1913, shares tone and form with many of Helen Frankenthaler’s paintings–dreamlike, gauzy, fluid, bold. The image itself seems like it would be velvety to the touch: a moment captured in that liminal state between sleep and waking life where senses blur and the mind is still.