Stieglitz, Alfred

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{{Infobox Person |
 
{{Infobox Person |
 
  name=Alfred Stieglitz |
 
  name=Alfred Stieglitz |
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  caption=Alfred Stieglitz, photographed by [[Carl Van Vechten]], 1935. |
 
  caption=Alfred Stieglitz, photographed by [[Carl Van Vechten]], 1935. |
 
  dead=dead |
 
  dead=dead |
  birth_date=[[January 1]],[[1864]] |
+
  birth_date=January 1, 1864 |
 
  birth_place=[[Hoboken, New Jersey|Hoboken]], [[New Jersey]], [[United States|USA]] |
 
  birth_place=[[Hoboken, New Jersey|Hoboken]], [[New Jersey]], [[United States|USA]] |
  death_date=[[July 13]],[[1946]] |
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  death_date=July 13, 1946 |
  place_of_death=[[New York]], [[New York]], [[United States|USA]] |
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  place_of_death=New York, [[New York]], [[United States|USA]] |
 
}}
 
}}
  
'''Alfred Stieglitz''' ([[January 1]],[[1864]] – [[July 13]],[[1946]]) was an American-born photographer who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making [[photography]] an acceptable art form alongside [[painting]] and [[sculpture]]. Many of his photographs are known for appearing like those other art forms, and he is also known for his marriage to painter [[Georgia O'Keeffe]], most famous for her large-scale paintings of flowers.
+
'''Alfred Stieglitz''' (January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer whose ground-breaking technical advances and attention to principles of composition and design were instrumental in advancing [[photography]] as a modern visual art. Over his 50-year career, Stieglitz helped to transform photography from a technology for visual reproduction into an expressive art form like [[painting]], [[sculpture]], and graphic arts. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz served as coeditor of ''American Amateur Photography'' (1893-1896) and later as editor of ''Camera Notes,'' both of which publicized the works of leading photographers and discussed theoretical, technical, and aesthetic aspects of modern photography.
  
Stieglitz was born the eldest of six children in [[Hoboken, New Jersey]] and raised in a [[brownstone]] on [[Manhattan]]'s [[Upper East Side]]. His father moved with his family to [[Germany]] in 1881.  The next year, Stieglitz began studying mechanical engineering at the [[Technische Hochschule]] in [[Berlin]] and soon switched to photography.  Traveling through the European countryside with his camera, he took many photographs of peasants working on the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] seacoast and undisturbed nature within Germany's [[Black Forest]] and won prizes and attention throughout Europe in the [[1880s]] .
+
Stieglitz lived during the transition from a predominantly agricultural to industrial society and played a singular role in the emergence of [[modernism]] in the [[visual arts]]. Photography as a technology was uniquely suited to examine the deracination of modern industrial life, a theme taken up in much modernist literature and art.
 +
{{toc}}
 +
Stieglitz also played a significant part in introducing [[modern art]] to [[United States]]. Married to the noted modernist painter [[Georgia O'Keeffe]], Stieglitz with O'Keeffe owned a series of galleries that brought modernist works before the public. Stieglitz's achievement as an artist was assessed by photographer Edward Steichen as "like none ever made by any other photographer," and his influence on artists, writers, and art institutions encouraged a new estimation of America's contribution to the arts and culture.
  
Throughout his life, Stieglitz was infatuated with younger women.  He married Emmeline Obermeyer in 1893, after he returned to [[New York]], and they had one child, Kitty, in 1898. Allowances from Emmeline's father and his own enabled Stieglitz to not have to work for a living. From 1893 to 1896, Stieglitz was editor of ''[[American Amateur Photographer]]'' magazine; however, his editorial style proved to be brusque, autocratic and alienating to many subscribers. After being forced to resign, Stieglitz turned to the New York Camera Club (which was later renamed [[The Camera Club of New York]] and is in existence to this day) and retooled its newsletter into a serious art periodical known as ''[[Camera Work]]''. He announced that every published image would be a picture, not a photograph - a statement that allowed Stieglitz to determine which was which by his [[scientific method]].
+
==Early Life==
[[Image:The Steerage 1907 Stieglitz Corrected.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Stieglitz's ''The Steerage'']]
+
Alfred Stieglitz was born the eldest of six children in Hoboken, [[New Jersey]] to German-Jewish immigrant parents. When Stieglitz was 16, the family moved to a brownstone on Manhattan's Upper East Side. The Stieglitz household was a lively place, often filled with artists, writers, musicians and creative thinkers. This may have influenced Stieglitz's later sensitivity toward the needs of struggling artists and his desire to support and provide opportunities for them to show their work.  
  
Big camera clubs that were the vogue in America at the time did not satisfy him; in 1902 he organized an invitation-only group, which he dubbed the [[Photo-Secession]], to force the art world to recognize photography "as a distinctive medium of individual expression."  Among its members were [[Edward Steichen]], [[Gertrude Kasebier]], [[Clarence Hudson White|Clarence White]] and [[Alvin Langdon Coburn]]. Photo-Secession held its own exhibitions and published ''[[Camera Work]]'', a pre-eminent quarterly photographic journal, until 1917.  
+
The parents argued frequently over money for domestic expenses, even though there was plenty for an array of luxuries. This conflict and inconsistency influenced Stieglitz to choose a simpler way and to minimize the profit aspect of his business enterprises later in life. Stieglitz was an indifferent student but had strong manual dexterity as well as a determination to learn new skills, which served him well later as he worked patiently to master photographic skills and techniques.
  
From 1905 to 1917, Stieglitz managed the [[Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession]] at 291 [[Fifth Avenue]] (which came to be known as ''291''). In 1910, Stieglitz was invited to organize a show at Buffalo's [[Albright-Knox Art Gallery]], which set attendance records. He was insistent that "photographs look like photographs," so that the medium of photography would be considered  with its own aesthetic credo and so separate photography from other fine arts such as painting, thus defining photography as a fine art for the first time. This approach by Stieglitz to photography gained the term "[[straight photography]]" in contrast to other forms of photography such as "pictorial photography" which practiced manipulation of the image pre and/or post exposure.  
+
His father retired from business suddenly and moved the family to [[Germany]] in 1881 to take advantage of educational and cultural opportunities in Europe. The next year, Stieglitz began studying mechanical engineering at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin. He had little enjoyment in his coursework and spent free time immersed in the cultural scene of theater, operas, and concerts. The following year, an impulse purchase of a camera was life changing for him and he soon devoted himself in the study of photography.
  
[[Image:Stieglitz okeeffe 1918 Corrected.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A Stieglitz portrait of [[Georgia O'Keeffe]]]]
+
Stieglitz set up a makeshift darkroom and set about experimenting. He took coursework from world-renowned Dr. [[Hermann Wilhem Vogel]] on the science and chemistry of photography in a state-of-the-art laboratory. He dedicated himself to experimentation for the sake of his art, which came to influence other aspects of his life. Eventually he referred to his various galleries as his laboratories.
Stieglitz divorced his wife Emmeline in 1918, soon after she threw him out of their house when she came home and found him photographing [[Georgia O'Keeffe]], whom he moved in with shortly thereafter. The two married in 1924 and were both successful, he in photography (he would take hundreds of pictures of her throughout his life), she as an artist who had received notoriety from Stieglitz at ''291'' in 1916 and 1917. Stieglitz began in 1916 photographing O'Keeffe and over the next two decades comprised one of his greatest works, his collective portrait of O'Keeffe (over 300 images) which was a collaborative process between both sitter and photographer. The marriage between O'Keeffe and Stieglitz was strained as she had to care more for his health due to a prevailing heart condition and his [[hypochondria]]. Following a visit to Santa Fe and Taos in 1929, O'Keeffe began to spend a portion of most summers in [[New Mexico]].
 
  
In the 1930s, Stieglitz took a series of photographs, some nude, of heiress [[Dorothy Norman]], who became in O'Keeffe's mind a serious rival for Stieglitz's affections. Both these photographs and those of O'Keeffe are often considered the first photographs to recognize the artistic potential of isolated parts of the human body. In these years, he also presided over two non-commercial [[New York City]] galleries, The Intimate Gallery and An American Place.  It was at An American Place that he forged his friendship with the great 20th century photographer [[Ansel Easton Adams]].  Adams displayed many prints in Stieglitz's gallery, corresponded with him and also photographed Stieglitz on occasion.
+
Traveling through the European countryside on foot or bike with his camera during the summer of 1883,  
 +
Stieglitz took many photographs of peasants working on the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] seacoast and of undisturbed nature scenes in Germany's [[Black Forest]].   
  
Stieglitz was a great philanthropist and sympathiser with his fellow human beings. He once received a phone call on one of Adams' visits. A man wanted to show Stieglitz some work. He invited him over, looked at the prints, looked at the man in a rather disheveled state of affairs, looked at the work again.  He then offered to buy the paintings and gave him a ten dollar bill, told him to get something warm to eat, get cleaned up, and come back so that they could iron out the details. The look in the man's eyes could have been an eternal testament to the kindness that was Alfred Stieglitz.
+
His photographs won prizes and attention throughout Europe in the 1880s; he received more than 150 awards during this time, which led to appointments on judging panels for exhibits. He began to write on technical problems for photographic publications as well. Meanwhile he continued to hone his technique in photos of [[cityscape]]s and architectural views on platinum paper with its velvet-like surface and subtle changes of tone. His persistent experimentation and testing of accepted rules of photography brought about revolutionary advances in photographic technique. At the Berlin Jubilee Exhibition in 1889, Stieglitz demonstrated that a photo could be exposed, developed and printed in a record time of 37 minutes. This had extraordinary impact on [[photo journalism]].
  
Stieglitz's stopped taking photographs in 1937 due to [[heart disease]]. Over the last ten years of his life, he summered at [[Lake George, New York]] and worked in a shed he had converted into a [[darkroom]] and wintered with O'Keeffe in Manhattan. He died in 1946 at 82, still a staunch supporter of O'Keeffe and she of him.
+
==Return to America==
 +
Stieglitz's parents had returned to America in 1886. In his independence, Stieglitz became involved in more than one unstable romance, and his father, who was still supporting his son, made it clear that it was time for Alfred to return to New York, embark on a career and find a suitable wife. 
 +
 
 +
Stieglitz married Emmeline Obermeyer in 1893 after his return to New York. They had a daughter, Kitty, in 1898 and support from Emmeline's father and his own enabled Stieglitz the financial freedom to pursue his photography.
 +
 
 +
From 1893 to 1896, Stieglitz was editor of ''American Amateur Photographer'' magazine. However, his editorial style proved to be brusque and autocratic, alienating many subscribers. After being forced to resign, Stieglitz turned to the New York Camera Club (later renamed The Camera Club of New York, still in existence). He retooled their newsletter into a serious art periodical, announcing that every published image would be a picture, not a photograph.
 +
[[Image:The Steerage 1907 Stieglitz Corrected.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Stieglitz's ''The Steerage,'' a 1907 photograph of working-class people crowding two decks of a transatlantic steamer.]]
 +
 
 +
===The art of photography ===
 +
Big camera clubs that were the vogue in America at the time did not satisfy him. In 1902 he organized an invitation-only group, which he dubbed the Photo-Secession. The purpose of the group was to persuade the art world to recognize photography "as a distinctive medium of individual expression." Among its members were [[Edward Steichen]], Gertrude Kasebier, Clarence Hudson White and Alvin Langdon Coburn. Steichen and Stieglitz, who first met in 1900, were to become partners in efforts to introduce modern art to America.
 +
 
 +
Photo-Secession held its own exhibitions and published ''Camera Work,'' a preeminent quarterly photographic journal, until 1917, with Stieglitz serving as editor. ''Camera Work'' fulfilled Stieglitz' vision for the magazine as the premiere art publication for the [[avant garde]] and art connoisseur. The journal also served as a record of Stieglitz' introduction of modern art to America.
 +
 
 +
From 1905 to 1917, Stieglitz managed the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue (which came to be known as ''291''). Artists and photographers shown at ''291'' included [[Pablo Picasso]], [[Cezanne]], [[Matisse]], [[Brancusi]], [[Auguste Rodin|Rodin]], [[John Marin]], [[Man Ray]] and [[Marcel Duchamp]]. Because of his time in Paris immersed in the art scene, Edward Steichen was instrumental in meeting many of these artists and introducing their work for the first time in America.
 +
 
 +
Photographer Paul Haviland arrived at ''291'' in 1908. Stieglitz and Steichen were discussing closing the gallery due to Stieglitz' constant fatigue and the increased expenses required to keep it open. Haviland, a French-born descendant of wealth, was inspired by a Rodin exhibit at the gallery and offered patronage to continue the operation. Stieglitz, always proud, resisted at first but was coaxed by Steichen, the playwright [[George Bernard Shaw]] and other colleagues to accept Haviland's help and continue the endeavor. Haviland became a strong partner, helping to facilitate art exhibits and learning more about photography from Stieglitz.
 +
 
 +
In 1910, Stieglitz was invited to organize a show at [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo's]] Albright-Knox Art Gallery, which set attendance records. He was insistent that "photographs look like photographs," so that the medium of photography would be judged according to its own [[aesthetic]] credo, separating photography from other fine arts such as painting, and defining photography as a [[fine art]] for the first time. This approach to photography was termed "straight photography" in contrast to other forms of photography, specifically "pictorial photography" which practiced manipulation of the image either before or after exposure, often to mimic the effects of painting, theater, or sculpture.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
[[Image:Stieglitz okeeffe 1918 Corrected.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A Stieglitz portrait of [[Georgia O'Keeffe]] in 1918.]]
 +
 
 +
===Marriage to Georgia O'Keeffe===
 +
Stieglitz began to exhibit the works of the modernist artist Georgia O'Keeffe at ''291'' in 1916 and 1917. Stieglitz began photographing O'Keeffe in 1916, which led to a rupture with his wife. Reportedly she threw him out of their house after coming home to find him photographing O'Keeffe. The couple divorced in 1918, and shortly after, Stieglitz moved in with O'Keeffe.
 +
 
 +
The two married in 1924, and over the next two decades he compiled one of his greatest works, his collective portrait of O'Keeffe (over 300 images), which was a creative collaboration between sitter and photographer, on the theme of "womanhood" which show her systematically undressing.
 +
 
 +
Eventually, the marriage between O'Keeffe and Stieglitz became strained as her role became increasingly a caregiver due to his prevailing heart condition and his [[hypochondria]]. Following a visit to [[Santa Fe, New Mexico|Santa Fe]] and [[Taos, New Mexico|Taos]] in 1929, O'Keeffe began to spend a portion of most summers in [[New Mexico]].
 +
 
 +
===Later years===
 +
In the 1930s, Stieglitz took a series of photographs, some nude, of heiress Dorothy Norman. This caused additional strain in the marriage, their relationship increasingly alternating between conflict and reconciliation, and, eventually, acceptance and affection.
 +
 
 +
In these years, Stieglitz also presided over two non-commercial [[New York City]] galleries, The Intimate Gallery and An American Place. At the latter he forged a friendship with the great twentieth century photographer [[Ansel Adams]]. Adams displayed many prints in Stieglitz's gallery, corresponded with him and photographed Stieglitz on occasion. Stieglitz was a great philanthropist and sympathizer with his fellow human beings, once memorably interrupting a visit from Adams to receive and provide support for a disheveled artist.
 +
 
 +
Stieglitz stopped photographing in 1937 due to heart disease. Over the last ten years of his life, he summered at Lake George, New York, working in a shed he had converted into a darkroom. O'Keeffe and Stieglitz wintered in Manhattan. He died in 1946 at 82, still a staunch supporter of O'Keeffe and she of him.
 +
 
 +
==Legacy==
 +
By utilizing a technological medium to represent an artistic vision, Alfred Stieglitz documented the ascendancy of industry, the growth of urbanization, changes in social mores, and the emergence of a modern commercial culture. Like the expatriates [[Henry James]], [[T. S. Eliot]], and [[Ezra Pound]], Stieglitz sought to authenticate American experience informed by European aesthetic traditions, thus encouraging greater acceptance of American artistic perspectives in Europe. As a photographer, Stieglitz was primarily interested in the capacity of the photograph to express a coherent artistic statement, while advocating modernist art as a unique medium to explore contemporary modern life. According to cultural historian Bram Dijkstra, Stieglitz "provided the essential example of the means by which the artist could reach out to a new, more accurate mode of representing the world of experience."
  
 
'''Pictures by Stieglitz:'''
 
'''Pictures by Stieglitz:'''
*''The Last Joke—Bellagio'' (1887; gathering of children in a photograph praised for its spontaneity, won first prize in ''[[The Amateur Photographer]]'' that year)
+
*''The Last Joke—Bellagio'' (1887); gathering of children in a photograph praised for its spontaneity, won first prize in ''[[The Amateur Photographer]]'' that year)
*''Sun Rays—Paula, Berlin'' (1889; a young woman writes a letter lit by sunlight filtered through [[window blind|Venetian blinds]])
+
*''Sun Rays—Paula, Berlin'' (1889); a young woman writes a letter lit by sunlight filtered through [[window blind|Venetian blinds]])
 
*''Spring Showers'' (1900-1901)
 
*''Spring Showers'' (1900-1901)
*''The Hand of Man'' (1902); a train pulling into the [[Long Island]] freight yard)
+
*''The Hand of Man'' (1902); a train pulling into the [[Long Island]] freight yard)
*''The Steerage'' (photographed in 1907 but unpublished until 1911; famous photograph of working class people crowding two decks of a transatlantic steamer)
+
*''The Steerage'' (photographed in 1907 but unpublished until 1911); famous photograph of working class people crowding two decks of a transatlantic steamer)
*''The Hay Wagon'' (1922)
+
*''The Hay Wagon'' (1922)
*''Equivalent'' (1931; a picture of clouds taken as pure pattern)
+
*''Equivalent'' (1931); a picture of clouds taken as pure pattern)
 +
 
 +
==References==
 +
* ''American Masters: Alfred Steiglitz,'' [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stieglitz_a.html].''Public Broadcasting Service''. Retrieved March 25, 2008
 +
* Davis, Keith F., ''An American Century of Photography'', Kansas City: Hallmark Cards. ISBN 810963787
 +
* Eisler, Benita. 1991. ''O'Keeffe and Stieglitz an American romance.'' New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0385261225
 +
* Hoffman, Katherine. 2004. ''Stieglitz A Beginning Light.'' New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300102399
 +
* Sontag, Susan. ''On Photography.'' New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977. ISBN 9780374226268
 +
* Weber, Eva. 1994. ''Alfred Stieglitz.'' New York: Crescent Books. ISBN 051710332X
 +
* Whelan, Richard. 1995. ''Alfred Stieglitz a biography.'' Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0316934046
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
{{commonscat|Alfred Stieglitz}}
+
All links retrieved May 16, 2021.
* [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stieglitz_a.html PBS website on Stieglitz]
+
* [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stieglitz_a.html PBS website on Stieglitz]  
* [http://lynx.csusm.edu/circlesedge/ Circle’s Edge, a project to index manuscripts associated with Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe and Paul Strand.]
+
*[http://photogravure.com/history/keyfigures_stieglitz.html  The Art of the Photogravure: Key Figures]  
*[http://www.leegallery.com/stieglitz.html  Stieglitz Photographs]
+
 
*[http://www.eastman.org/fm/stieglitz/htmlsrc/stieglitz_sld00001.html  More Stieglitz Photographs]
 
*[http://photogravure.com/history/keyfigures_stieglitz.html  The Art of the Photogravure: Key Figures]
 
* {{cite web |publisher= [[Victoria and Albert Museum]]
 
|url= http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/photography/past_exhns/stieglitz/
 
|title= Stieglitz portraits of Georgia O'Keeffe
 
|work= Photography
 
|accessdate= 2007-06-16 }}
 
  
[[Category:American photographers|Stieglitz, Alfred]]
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[[Category:History]]
[[Category:Photography critics|Stieglitz, Alfred]]
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[[category:artists]]
[[Category:American curators|Stieglitz, Alfred]]
 
[[Category:City University of New York people|Stieglitz, Alfred]]
 
[[Category:Jewish photographers|Stieglitz, Alfred]]
 
[[Category:People from Hudson County, New Jersey|Stieglitz, Alfred]]
 
[[Category:People from New York City|Stieglitz, Alfred]]
 
[[Category:Hypochondriacs|Stieglitz]]
 
[[Category:1864 births|Stieglitz, Alfred]]
 
[[Category:1946 deaths|Stieglitz, Alfred]]
 
  
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{{Credit|152773935}}
 
{{Credit|152773935}}

Revision as of 13:19, 16 May 2021

Alfred Stieglitz
Stieglitz.jpg
Alfred Stieglitz, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1935.
BornJanuary 1, 1864
Hoboken, New Jersey, USA
DiedJuly 13, 1946

Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer whose ground-breaking technical advances and attention to principles of composition and design were instrumental in advancing photography as a modern visual art. Over his 50-year career, Stieglitz helped to transform photography from a technology for visual reproduction into an expressive art form like painting, sculpture, and graphic arts. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz served as coeditor of American Amateur Photography (1893-1896) and later as editor of Camera Notes, both of which publicized the works of leading photographers and discussed theoretical, technical, and aesthetic aspects of modern photography.

Stieglitz lived during the transition from a predominantly agricultural to industrial society and played a singular role in the emergence of modernism in the visual arts. Photography as a technology was uniquely suited to examine the deracination of modern industrial life, a theme taken up in much modernist literature and art.

Stieglitz also played a significant part in introducing modern art to United States. Married to the noted modernist painter Georgia O'Keeffe, Stieglitz with O'Keeffe owned a series of galleries that brought modernist works before the public. Stieglitz's achievement as an artist was assessed by photographer Edward Steichen as "like none ever made by any other photographer," and his influence on artists, writers, and art institutions encouraged a new estimation of America's contribution to the arts and culture.

Early Life

Alfred Stieglitz was born the eldest of six children in Hoboken, New Jersey to German-Jewish immigrant parents. When Stieglitz was 16, the family moved to a brownstone on Manhattan's Upper East Side. The Stieglitz household was a lively place, often filled with artists, writers, musicians and creative thinkers. This may have influenced Stieglitz's later sensitivity toward the needs of struggling artists and his desire to support and provide opportunities for them to show their work.

The parents argued frequently over money for domestic expenses, even though there was plenty for an array of luxuries. This conflict and inconsistency influenced Stieglitz to choose a simpler way and to minimize the profit aspect of his business enterprises later in life. Stieglitz was an indifferent student but had strong manual dexterity as well as a determination to learn new skills, which served him well later as he worked patiently to master photographic skills and techniques.

His father retired from business suddenly and moved the family to Germany in 1881 to take advantage of educational and cultural opportunities in Europe. The next year, Stieglitz began studying mechanical engineering at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin. He had little enjoyment in his coursework and spent free time immersed in the cultural scene of theater, operas, and concerts. The following year, an impulse purchase of a camera was life changing for him and he soon devoted himself in the study of photography.

Stieglitz set up a makeshift darkroom and set about experimenting. He took coursework from world-renowned Dr. Hermann Wilhem Vogel on the science and chemistry of photography in a state-of-the-art laboratory. He dedicated himself to experimentation for the sake of his art, which came to influence other aspects of his life. Eventually he referred to his various galleries as his laboratories.

Traveling through the European countryside on foot or bike with his camera during the summer of 1883, Stieglitz took many photographs of peasants working on the Dutch seacoast and of undisturbed nature scenes in Germany's Black Forest.

His photographs won prizes and attention throughout Europe in the 1880s; he received more than 150 awards during this time, which led to appointments on judging panels for exhibits. He began to write on technical problems for photographic publications as well. Meanwhile he continued to hone his technique in photos of cityscapes and architectural views on platinum paper with its velvet-like surface and subtle changes of tone. His persistent experimentation and testing of accepted rules of photography brought about revolutionary advances in photographic technique. At the Berlin Jubilee Exhibition in 1889, Stieglitz demonstrated that a photo could be exposed, developed and printed in a record time of 37 minutes. This had extraordinary impact on photo journalism.

Return to America

Stieglitz's parents had returned to America in 1886. In his independence, Stieglitz became involved in more than one unstable romance, and his father, who was still supporting his son, made it clear that it was time for Alfred to return to New York, embark on a career and find a suitable wife.

Stieglitz married Emmeline Obermeyer in 1893 after his return to New York. They had a daughter, Kitty, in 1898 and support from Emmeline's father and his own enabled Stieglitz the financial freedom to pursue his photography.

From 1893 to 1896, Stieglitz was editor of American Amateur Photographer magazine. However, his editorial style proved to be brusque and autocratic, alienating many subscribers. After being forced to resign, Stieglitz turned to the New York Camera Club (later renamed The Camera Club of New York, still in existence). He retooled their newsletter into a serious art periodical, announcing that every published image would be a picture, not a photograph.

Stieglitz's The Steerage, a 1907 photograph of working-class people crowding two decks of a transatlantic steamer.

The art of photography

Big camera clubs that were the vogue in America at the time did not satisfy him. In 1902 he organized an invitation-only group, which he dubbed the Photo-Secession. The purpose of the group was to persuade the art world to recognize photography "as a distinctive medium of individual expression." Among its members were Edward Steichen, Gertrude Kasebier, Clarence Hudson White and Alvin Langdon Coburn. Steichen and Stieglitz, who first met in 1900, were to become partners in efforts to introduce modern art to America.

Photo-Secession held its own exhibitions and published Camera Work, a preeminent quarterly photographic journal, until 1917, with Stieglitz serving as editor. Camera Work fulfilled Stieglitz' vision for the magazine as the premiere art publication for the avant garde and art connoisseur. The journal also served as a record of Stieglitz' introduction of modern art to America.

From 1905 to 1917, Stieglitz managed the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue (which came to be known as 291). Artists and photographers shown at 291 included Pablo Picasso, Cezanne, Matisse, Brancusi, Rodin, John Marin, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. Because of his time in Paris immersed in the art scene, Edward Steichen was instrumental in meeting many of these artists and introducing their work for the first time in America.

Photographer Paul Haviland arrived at 291 in 1908. Stieglitz and Steichen were discussing closing the gallery due to Stieglitz' constant fatigue and the increased expenses required to keep it open. Haviland, a French-born descendant of wealth, was inspired by a Rodin exhibit at the gallery and offered patronage to continue the operation. Stieglitz, always proud, resisted at first but was coaxed by Steichen, the playwright George Bernard Shaw and other colleagues to accept Haviland's help and continue the endeavor. Haviland became a strong partner, helping to facilitate art exhibits and learning more about photography from Stieglitz.

In 1910, Stieglitz was invited to organize a show at Buffalo's Albright-Knox Art Gallery, which set attendance records. He was insistent that "photographs look like photographs," so that the medium of photography would be judged according to its own aesthetic credo, separating photography from other fine arts such as painting, and defining photography as a fine art for the first time. This approach to photography was termed "straight photography" in contrast to other forms of photography, specifically "pictorial photography" which practiced manipulation of the image either before or after exposure, often to mimic the effects of painting, theater, or sculpture.


A Stieglitz portrait of Georgia O'Keeffe in 1918.

Marriage to Georgia O'Keeffe

Stieglitz began to exhibit the works of the modernist artist Georgia O'Keeffe at 291 in 1916 and 1917. Stieglitz began photographing O'Keeffe in 1916, which led to a rupture with his wife. Reportedly she threw him out of their house after coming home to find him photographing O'Keeffe. The couple divorced in 1918, and shortly after, Stieglitz moved in with O'Keeffe.

The two married in 1924, and over the next two decades he compiled one of his greatest works, his collective portrait of O'Keeffe (over 300 images), which was a creative collaboration between sitter and photographer, on the theme of "womanhood" which show her systematically undressing.

Eventually, the marriage between O'Keeffe and Stieglitz became strained as her role became increasingly a caregiver due to his prevailing heart condition and his hypochondria. Following a visit to Santa Fe and Taos in 1929, O'Keeffe began to spend a portion of most summers in New Mexico.

Later years

In the 1930s, Stieglitz took a series of photographs, some nude, of heiress Dorothy Norman. This caused additional strain in the marriage, their relationship increasingly alternating between conflict and reconciliation, and, eventually, acceptance and affection.

In these years, Stieglitz also presided over two non-commercial New York City galleries, The Intimate Gallery and An American Place. At the latter he forged a friendship with the great twentieth century photographer Ansel Adams. Adams displayed many prints in Stieglitz's gallery, corresponded with him and photographed Stieglitz on occasion. Stieglitz was a great philanthropist and sympathizer with his fellow human beings, once memorably interrupting a visit from Adams to receive and provide support for a disheveled artist.

Stieglitz stopped photographing in 1937 due to heart disease. Over the last ten years of his life, he summered at Lake George, New York, working in a shed he had converted into a darkroom. O'Keeffe and Stieglitz wintered in Manhattan. He died in 1946 at 82, still a staunch supporter of O'Keeffe and she of him.

Legacy

By utilizing a technological medium to represent an artistic vision, Alfred Stieglitz documented the ascendancy of industry, the growth of urbanization, changes in social mores, and the emergence of a modern commercial culture. Like the expatriates Henry James, T. S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound, Stieglitz sought to authenticate American experience informed by European aesthetic traditions, thus encouraging greater acceptance of American artistic perspectives in Europe. As a photographer, Stieglitz was primarily interested in the capacity of the photograph to express a coherent artistic statement, while advocating modernist art as a unique medium to explore contemporary modern life. According to cultural historian Bram Dijkstra, Stieglitz "provided the essential example of the means by which the artist could reach out to a new, more accurate mode of representing the world of experience."

Pictures by Stieglitz:

  • The Last Joke—Bellagio (1887); gathering of children in a photograph praised for its spontaneity, won first prize in The Amateur Photographer that year)
  • Sun Rays—Paula, Berlin (1889); a young woman writes a letter lit by sunlight filtered through Venetian blinds)
  • Spring Showers (1900-1901)
  • The Hand of Man (1902); a train pulling into the Long Island freight yard)
  • The Steerage (photographed in 1907 but unpublished until 1911); famous photograph of working class people crowding two decks of a transatlantic steamer)
  • The Hay Wagon (1922)
  • Equivalent (1931); a picture of clouds taken as pure pattern)

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • American Masters: Alfred Steiglitz, [1].Public Broadcasting Service. Retrieved March 25, 2008
  • Davis, Keith F., An American Century of Photography, Kansas City: Hallmark Cards. ISBN 810963787
  • Eisler, Benita. 1991. O'Keeffe and Stieglitz an American romance. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0385261225
  • Hoffman, Katherine. 2004. Stieglitz A Beginning Light. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300102399
  • Sontag, Susan. On Photography. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977. ISBN 9780374226268
  • Weber, Eva. 1994. Alfred Stieglitz. New York: Crescent Books. ISBN 051710332X
  • Whelan, Richard. 1995. Alfred Stieglitz a biography. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0316934046

External links

All links retrieved May 16, 2021.


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