Edward Steichen

Edward Steichen, photographed by Fred Holland Day

Edward Steichen (March 27, 1879–March 25, 1973) was an American pioneer in the history of photography and its struggle to be accepted as an art form. During his photographic career he was also renowned as a painter, fashion photographer, curator, writer, and technical innovator.

Having established himself as a fine art painter in the beginning of the 20th century, Steichen assumed the pictorialist approach in photography and proved himself a master of it. In 1905, Steichen helped create the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession with Alfred Stieglitz. After World War I, during which he commanded the photographic division of the American Expeditionary Forces, he reverted to straight photography, gradually moving into fashion photography.

Among other accomplishments, Steichen is appreciated for creating The Family of Man in 1955, a vast exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art consisting of over 500 photos that depicted life, love and death in 68 countries.

In 1963 he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President John F. Kennedy.

Early Life

Edward Steichen was born in Luxembourg on March 27, 1879. The family settled in Hancock, Michigan, in 1881, where the father worked in a copper mine. They then moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Eduard —as he then spelled his name— at the age of 15 became an apprentice at the American Fine Art Company, a lithographic company. By the time he was 17 he was learning to be a lithographic designer and on the side he was teaching himself painting and photography. His youthful experiments made him one of the first commercial photographers in Milwaukee.

With no classes on photography available and no books in the Milwaukee library he turned to the pages of Camera Notes, a quarterly journal edited by Alfred Stiegletz. In those pages he saw photos and read articles that fed his thirst for more knowledge.

When he was about 18 years old Steichen organized the Milwaukee Art Student's League and served as its first president. He and several friends talked well known area artists like Robert Schade and Richard Lorenz into instructing them and evaluating their work.

In 1899 he entered three of his photographs into the second Philadelphia Photographic Salon competition which was judged by the leading photographers of the day, including Stieglitz and Clarence White. Out of the 962 entries three of Steichen's were chosen for the national exhibition.

In 1900, after having more photos chosen for Chicago exhibit and turning 21, he decided to travel to Europe to study art and he set off for Paris. On his way to Europe he stopped in New York to show his paintings to William Merritt Chase and to meet Stieglitz, the dominant photographer in the New York City art community. Stieglitz ended up buying three of Steichen's prints and agreed to publish some in Camera Notes.

His big breakthrough in Europe came when the Salon Nationale des Beaux-Arts chose one of his paintings, six charcoal portraits, and ten pigment photographs. Photographs had never before been accepted by the Salon. As a result the British photographic art journal Amateur Photographer reproduced all the items accepted by the Salon and he was hailed as the foremost representative of the American School.

While in Europe he became the personal photographer and friend of sculptor Auguste Rodin.

Career on two continents

In 1902 he returned to the United States and after a short time at home in Milwaukee he headed to New York City. Arriving in New York just in time for Stieglitz's proclamation of Photo-Secession, Steichen became the graphic designer for his new magazine, Camera Work.

He found great success as both a painter and a photographer in New York winning both acclaim and awards, especially of his photo portraits of the city's well known personalities.

J.P. Morgan, photographed by Edward Steichen in 1903

In 1905 Stieglitz and Steichen cofounded the 291 and Photo-Secession galleries at the Fifth Avenue space that Steichen had recently vacated. Soon after opening the galleries however, Steichen's constant desire for challenge led him to return to Europe with his family in 1906 while leaving Stieglitz to manage the galleries.

While in Paris he looked up his friend Rodin and soon convinced him that he should do his first American exhibit at his 21 Gallery. He also made the acquaintance of Leo and Gertrude Stein and found himself at the center of the newest art movement in Europe.

As a result "291" became an international force when they also introduced to America the paintings, drawings, and sculpture of such artists as Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, John Marin and Constantin Brancusi. He sent their work to Stieglitz for exhibition at 291 and later arranged to have it shown at the 1913 Armory Show.

Also during this time in Europe he developed an interest in documentary and news photography. He would also happen to be there when the color photography process, the "Autochrome Lumière", was launched on the market in 1907. This would in turn lead to America's first introduction to color photographs at the 291. In 1908 the debut of Rodin's erotic drawings at 291 created a great deal of controversy that brought viewers in droves.

It was also in 1908 that helped organize the Society of Younger American Painters in Paris. It was created as a statement by young avant-garde artists against the more conservative Society of American Artists also in Paris.

He returned to America in 1908 long enough to do exhibits of his photos and autochromes at Photo-Secession, paintings and photographs at the National Arts Club and paintings at the Pratt Institute that all received great acclaim and were financially successful for him.

War years

Steichen continued to live in France and travel to New York for exhibits until 1914 when World War I broke out. Returning to live in Connecticut he ultimately would be commissioned as a first lieutenant in the Signal Corps Photographic Division in 1917 when the U.S. got involved in the war. As a result he would be involved in the first aerial photographic reconnaissance operation in U.S. military history.

He retired as lieutenant colonel in 1919 and settled in Voulangis, France. Separated from his wife and dealing with the effects of the war he became something of a recluse and gave up painting and focused on gardening. His focus on plants resulted in a new photographic focus. He began to use the camera to compose innovative pictures of geometrical forms in nature that resulted in beautiful still-life images.

In 1923 he returned to America ready to make a new start. This would be facilitated by a meeting with Conde Nast, owner and publisher of Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines where he was offered a job as chief photographer. The result was a 15 year relationship in which he produced fashion illustrations and portraits of personalities that would make both magazines the most popular of their day. Employing carefully controlled studio lighting, Steichen developed an elegant, dramatic signature style that profoundly influenced commercial photography.

As a result of his new direction he renounced painting and destroyed many of his works. Over the years he would do portraits of Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Katherine Hepburn, Fred Astaire, George Gershwin, and Eugene O'Neill, to name just a few. He photographed just about every celebrity of the time.

During the Great Depression he was hired by J. Walter Thompson to make public service photographs for a new hospital. The resulting images, The Clinic, moved his photos into the realm of social commentary. His Homeless Women: The Depression series, done in 1932, became a classic record of the period. In 1932 Steichen also did a photo mural of the George Washington Bridge that was chosen to be displayed at the Museum of Modern Art. He also did one for the new Radio City Music Hall depicting scientific achievements.

In 1938 he won the Silver Medal at the national Advertising and Selling Awards for his ad campaigns for Cannon Mills, Steinway pianos, Eastman Kodak, and many others. The same year he was declared a living legend by Popular Photography magazine.

Photo taken by Commander Edward Steichen on the U.S.S. Lexington in 1943

He retired in 1938 and closed his studio to devote his time to plant breeding. Soon afterwards he would find himself trying to reenlist in the military at the age of 61 as America faced the prospect of World War II. After his third attempt to reenlist he was commissioned a lieutenant commander in 1942 and headed the Naval Aviation Photographic Unit, which documented aircraft carriers in action. His first assignment was to complete an exhibition he had started for MOMA in 1941 on national defense. He organized the extremely popular exhibition Road to Victory that had 150 images (none of his own) and opened in May 1942 at MOMA. The show then traveled to many American cities and to London, Australia and South America.

He directed the creation of the war documentary The Fighting Lady, chronicling the battles of the crew of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Yorktown, which won the 1944 Academy Award for Best Documentary.

In 1945 his second joint Navy and MOMA exhibition, "Power in the Pacific," went on display. He was officially discharged in 1945, at the age of 67, and received the Distinguished Service Medal.

Family of Man

At the age of 68 Steichen was named director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Of the many exhibitions he created, the largest and most famous was "The Family of Man," that was first shown in 1955.

According to Steichen, the exhibition represented the 'culmination of his career'. The 503 photos were selected from almost two million pictures taken by 273 photographers, famous and unknown, in 68 countries, and offered a striking snapshot of the human experience. Subjects included birth, love, and joy, war, privation, illness and death. His intention was to prove visually the universality of human experience and photography's role in its documentation.

The exhibit was turned into a book of the same name, containing an introduction by Carl Sandburg who was Steichen's brother-in-law. The book was reproduced in a variety of formats (most popularly a pocket-sized volume) in the 1950s, and reprinted in large format for its 40th anniversary. It has sold more than 4 million copies.

The exhibition later traveled in several versions to 38 countries. More than 9 million people viewed the exhibit. The only surviving edition was presented to Luxembourg at Steichen's request and is on permanent display in Clervaux.

Marriage

In 1903 he married Clara Smith and they would have two daughters, Kate and Mary. In 1915, after years of depression and paranoid accusations of infidelity, Clara decided to leave Steichen in the U.S and return to France with her two daughters. In spite of his strong objections she returned to Europe in a self-destructive fit just as the war broke out, taking Kate and leaving Mary with him.

In 1917, when the U.S. got involved in the war she returned to the U.S. just as Steichen was being assigned overseas. Two years later she filed an alienation of affection suit in the New York Supreme Court against Marion Beckett asking for $200,000 in damages. The trial took place in 1921 with the result that Clara lost. The divorce became official in 1922 when he filed in France and she filed in the U.S.

In 1921 Steichen met Dana Desboro Glover, 15 years his junior, at the New York School of Photography. She was an aspiring actress who shared his passion for photography. They were married in 1923.

Plant hybridizing

In 1908 Steichen moved his family to a country house with a spacious garden in Voulangis, France. It was here he developed an interest in the genetics of flowers that was germinated in his days as a child working in his father's garden.

He began experimenting with the crossbreeding of delphiniums and Oriental poppies. He became serious enough about it to order seeds from renown horticulturalists like Luther Burbank. His garden also became a backdrop and a subject in his paintings and his photos.

On his return to the U.S. he started what he called the Umpawaug Plant Breeding Farm in Connecticut with his second wife, Dana, where he cultivated up to 100,000 delphiniums annually.

In the mid-thirties he served as the president of the American Delphinium Society and won international recognition for his perennials.

Im 1936 he had his first one man show at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA),featuring his photos of plants. The show included live cuttings from his Farm. In 1938 Better Homes and Gardens magazine did a feature on his delphiniums that used one of his color photos for the front cover.

Legacy

Steichen's The Pond-Moonlight

In February of 2006, a copy of Steichen's early pictorialist photograph, The Pond-Moonlight (1904), sold for the highest price ever paid for a photograph at auction, U.S. $2.9 million.

Steichen took the photograph in Mamaroneck, New York near the home of his friend, art critic Charles Caffin. The photo features a wooded area and pond, with moonlight appearing between the trees and reflecting on the pond. While the print appears to be a color photograph, the first true color photographic process, the autochrome, was not available until 1907. Steichen created the impression of color by manually applying layers of light-sensitive gums to the paper. In 1904, only a few photographers were using this experimental approach. Only three known versions of the Pond-Moonlight are still in existence and, as a result of the hand-layering of the gums, each is unique. In addition to the auctioned print, the other two versions are held in museum collections. The extraordinary sale price of the print is, in part, attributable to its one-of-a-kind character and to its rarity.

Works

• Steichen, Edward. 1963. A Life in Photography. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.
• Steichen, Edward. 1978. Edward Steichen. The Aperture history of photography series, 9. Millerton, N.Y.: Aperture. ISBN 0893810061
• Steichen, Edward. 1966. Sandburg; photographers view Carl Sandburg. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
• Steichen, Edward. 1951. Memorable Life Photographs. New York: Museum of Modern Art.

Further reading

• Niven, Penelope. 1997. Steichen: a biography. New York: Clarkson Potter. ISBN 0517593734
• Steichen, Edward, and Joanna T. Steichen. 2000. Steichen's legacy: photographs, 1895-1973. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0679450769
• Steichen, Edward, Beaumont Newhall, and Mary Steichen Calderone. 1981. Edward Steichen, the early years, 1900-1927. Millerton, N.Y.: Apeture. ISBN 0893810746
• Smith, Joel, and Edward Steichen. 1999. Edward Steichen: the early years. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press in association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 0691048738
• Steichen, Edward, and Christopher Phillips. 1981. Steichen at War. New York: H.N. Abrams. ISBN 0810916398
• Johnston, Patricia A. 1997. Real fantasies Edward Steichen's advertising photography. Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press. ISBN 0585277877
• Peterson, Christian A., and Edward Steichen. 1984. Edward Steichen: the portraits. San Francisco, Calif: Art Museum Association of America. ISBN 0930295005
• Steichen, Edward, and Dennis Longwell. 1978. Steichen: the master prints 1895-1914, the symbolist period. New York: Museum of Modern Art. ISBN 0870705814
• Sandeen, Eric J. 1995. Picturing an exhibition: the family of man and 1950s America. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0826315585

External links

• National Gallery of Art Tour of Steichen Nga.gov. Retrieved September 2, 2007.
• Edward J. Steichen Artcyclopedia.com. Retrieved September 1, 2007.
• Edward Steichen Staleywise.com. Retrieved September 2, 2007.
• Edward Steichen at Whitney Museum of American Art Thecityreview.com.Retrieved September 2, 2007.
• Profile: Edward Steichen Masters-of-photography.com. Retrieved September 1, 2007.

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