Equivalents - Series and Sets

Series and Sets

Stieglitz arranged the photographs he called Equivalent into several different groups when he exhibited or published them, and often he inscribed the mounted prints on the back with one or more letters to further identify what he called "sets". These groupings are not sequential, and Stieglitz did not consider any single series or set as a discrete unit. Some of the individual prints are included in more than one series or set, and some copies of the same print are inscribed with different identifications. In general, his sets should be seen as "totally artificial constructions which mirror, not the passage of real time, but the change and flux of Stieglitz’s subjective state."

The following is a chronological listing of the Equivalents photographs. Many of the prints do not have individual titles, and dozens of photographs are known by the same generic name Equivalent. The most comprehensive catalog of these photographs is found in Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set., and the numbers in this list refer to the photographs identified in that publication.

• 1923 – Songs of the Sky "W" / Equivalent "W" – two prints (Key Set #950-951). These prints were originally part of the Songs of the Sky series, but in 1929 Stieglitz renamed them Equivalents. These are not the same prints as those belonging to "Set W" taken in 1929.
• 1923 – Songs of the Sky "XX" / Equivalent "XX" –four prints (Key Set #952-955). These prints were originally part of the Songs of the Sky series, but in 1929 Stieglitz renamed them Equivalents. These are not the same prints as those belonging to "Set XX" taken in 1929.
• 1923 – Songs of the Sky / Equivalent – thirty-four prints (Key Set #956-989). These prints were originally part of the Songs of the Sky series, but in 1929 Stieglitz renamed them Equivalents.
• 1925 - Forty-five prints (Key Set #1093-1137)
• 1926 - Twenty prints (Key Set #1159-1178)
• 1927 - Ten prints (Key Set #1198-1207)
• 1928 - Twenty-seven prints (Key Set #1208-1239)
• 1929 – Set B: two prints (Key Set #1282-1283)
• 1929 – Set C2: five prints (Key Set #1253-1257)
• 1929 – Set HH: three prints (Key Set #1258-1260)
• 1929 – Set K: three prints (Key Set #1261-1263)
• 1929 – Set O: seven prints (Key Set #12641270)
• 1929 – Set W: five prints (Key Set #1277-1281)
• 1929 – Set XX: nine prints (Key Set #1284-1292)
• 1929 – Thirteen prints ("Key Set" #1293-1305)
• 1930 - Twenty prints (Key Set #1330-1349)
• 1931 - Fifteen prints (Key Set #1412-1426)
• 1933 – Three prints (all from one negative) (Key Set #1512-1514)
• 1934 – Six prints (Key Set #1558-1563)