Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz left a lasting legacy on fine art photography. Read a brief history of his life and accomplishments.

“It is not art in the professionalized sense about which I care, but that which is created sacredly, as a result of a deep inner experience, with all of oneself, and that becomes ‘art’ in time.”

– Alfred Stieglitz

New Year’s Day in 1864 didn’t seem at first to be any more unusual than the start of any new year in recent years. It might have been thought to be special because it was leap year. But the Civil War was going full throttle and the United States was split asunder.

In Hoboken, New Jersey a boy was born to German Jewish immigrants Edward Stieglitz, a lieutenant in the Union Army, and his wife Hedwig Ann Werner. The baby boy was the firstborn to Edward and Hedwig and would be followed by five more siblings.

The child was given the name Alfred. There was no way in predicting in those early years that little Alfred would make the name Stieglitz synonymous with the most revered and influential photographer in America.

Early Years

Stieglitz’s early education began with the Charlier Institute in New York in 1871. He was later enrolled in public school so that he could qualify for admission in City College of New York. But Edward was not satisfied with the quality of education in America and in 1881 he sold his business and moved his family back to Germany where they would receive a proper education. Alfred first enrolled in the Real Gymnasium in Karlsruhe. A year later he enrolled in the Technische Hochschue in Berlin to study mechanical engineering. But it was there that the true trajectory of his life began to take shape.

He signed up for a chemistry class taught by Herman Wilhelm Vogel who happened to be studying photographic chemical processes. And by this time, he had already bought a camera, so this course of study was of particular interest to him. Stieglitz and Vogel worked closely together, experimenting with different photograph development chemistries, something that Stieglitz would continue doing when he later returned to the U.S. His particular interest was in the chemical processes associated with platinum prints and photogravure, processes that he would continue to use throughout much of his career

Stieglitz the scientist had emerged.

 

In 1884, Stieglitz’s family returned to America, but Stieglitz stayed on in Europe. There, with his camera and skills in photographic chemistry, he started photographing Germany, the Netherlands and Italy. He was hooked. He later wrote that photography “fascinated me, first as a toy, then as a passion, then as an obsession.”

Stieglitz the photographer had emerged.

 

Stieglitz’s first publication was in 1887 in the British photography journal, The Amateur Photographer, titled “A Word or Two about Amateur Photography in Germany.” Amateur in those days did not have the connotation that it has today. Amateurs were not considered beginners without talent or sophistication. Stieglitz had this to say about amateurs.

“Let me here call attention to one of the most universally popular mistakes that have to do with photography – that of classing supposedly excellent work as professional, and using the term amateur to convey the idea of immature productions and to excuse atrociously poor photographs. As a matter of fact nearly all the greatest work is being, and has always been done, by those who are following photography for the love of it, and not merely for financial reasons. As the name implies, an amateur is one who works for love; and viewed in this light the incorrectness of the popular classification is readily apparent.” – Alfred Stieglitz

Stieglitz continued writing and publishing in photography journals, covering both the technical and aesthetic aspects of photography.

Stieglitz the author had emerged.

 

The Last JokeHe also started receiving recognition for his photographs while in Europe.

This photograph of his, The Last Joke, took first place in an Amateur Photographer competition. And the following year, two of Stieglitz’s photographs took first and second place in the same competition.

As his reputation grew, magazines in both Germany and England published his photographs.

Stieglitz the award-winning photographer, the photographer who needed to be paid attention to, had emerged.

 

In 1890, the death of his sister brought Stieglitz back to New York.

The Camera Club of New York

When Stieglitz returned to New York he quickly became active in two of its most prominent camera clubs – The Society of Amateur Photographers and the New York Camera Club. He entered his photographs in local competitions and received awards from the Boston Camera Club, the Photographic Society of Philadelphia and the Society of Amateur Photographers.

One of his passions that was to have the greatest impact for the world of photography was his obsession to gain acceptance of photography as a legitimate art form. Photographs were at that time regarded as mindless products from a mechanical device. How could such a thing created in this way possibly be art? This quote of his reveals the state of those affairs in no uncertain terms.

“Artists who saw my early photographs began to tell me that they envied me; that my photographs were superior to their paintings, but that unfortunately photography was not an art…I could not understand why the artists should envy me for my work, yet, in the same breath, decry it because it was machine-made—their ‘art’ painting, because hand-made being considered necessarily superior…There I started my fight…for the recognition of photography as a new medium of expressions, to be respected in its own right, on the basis as any other art form.” – Alfred Stieglitz

The movement for photography’s acceptance as art began in Europe. While he was there, he associated with other photographers and organizations that actively promoted photography as a form of art equal to any other medium. When he returned to America, Stieglitz took it upon himself to fully commit himself to change the prevailing view and the two camera clubs he joined were where he started. He approached this undertaking with what was to become apparent was one of his traits, great intensity, even if it meant rubbing others the wrong way and compromising his health and mental well being.

Stieglitz the indefatigable promoter of photography as art had emerged in full fury.

 

On top of all this, Stieglitz was attempting to run a printing business, Photochrome, that his father bought for him. In this business he mastered the craft of creating photogravures. While the business ultimately was not successful, it gave Stieglitz the background to produce the exquisite high-quality journals he had already become and would continue to be involved with.

In 1892 Stieglitz expanded his publishing interests by becoming a co-editor of the magazine The American Amateur Photographer. He wrote most of the articles and reviews for the magazine but refused a salary. And this was just the beginning. Much more was yet to come.

With his life becoming more and more active and demanding, Stieglitz still found time to get married on November 16, 1893 to Emmeline Obermeyer, the sister of a close business associate, Joe Obermeyer. Emmy turned out to have no interest in Stieglitz’s photography or other endeavors and their relationship ended up being distanced. It wasn’t until September 27, 1898 that their daughter Katherine, “Kitty,” was born.

In 1896 Stieglitz succeeded in negotiating the merger of the Society for Amateur Photographers and the New York Camera Club. They became known as the Camera Club of New York. One of Stieglitz first contributions to the club was the establishment of Camera Notes as the club’s journal. Stieglitz served as its editor. He began using this platform to promote his concepts of photography as art and exerted strict editorial control over its contents. Under his leadership, the journal became highly regarded for the quality of the photographs on its pages and the value of its articles.

Fifth AvenueIn addition to producing Camera Notes, he was actively photographing and making his own prints. Stieglitz the scientist continued to seek improvements to the printing process. In 1897, he published his first portfolio, Picturesque Bits of New York and Other Studies and sold his photograph, Winter – Fifth Avenue for $75. Today’s equivalent is $2,305.

In keeping with Stieglitz’s obsession with elevating photography to the realm of fine art, Fifth Avenue is an example of his work during his ‘Pictorialist’ period. The focus is soft, and the subject matter is romantic in nature. His genius for composition and expressiveness is apparent in this image. Stieglitz works with both the light and weather to create an image that is more than a horse-drawn cart coming down the street. The tracks in the snow lead our eyes to the cart. The snowy weather obscures the surrounding buildings. The contrast between the modern world that was rapidly mechanizing life and nature’s winter storm is a reflection of 19th century Romanticism. In the end, the image seeks to emulate a painting, one of the core tenants of the Pictorialist movement.

Because of Stieglitz’s autocratic control over Camera Notes, he began to lose the support of some of the members of the Camera Club of New York. He also became disenchanted with the club’s promotion of the principles of photography that were consistent with the what was commonly expected of photographs. In Europe, something else was going on, however. During this time an exhibition was mounted in Munich, Germany by a collection of photographers and painters, including Edvard Munch and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, in revolt from the generally accepted artistic norms of the day. They called themselves “Secessionists.”

Stieglitz was under such great strain managing the Camera club that in 1900 he suffered the first of what would become a series of mental collapses. To recover he spent most of the summer at the family’s summer home on Lake George. When he finally returned to New York he resigned as editor of Camera Notes.

Photo-Secession

Tensions continued to build in the Camera Club of New York. The other leading figures clung to a traditional view of photography and art. Painters were invited to judge photo competitions. As a result, the unique processes and characteristics of photography were not recognized or appreciated. Stieglitz found this too constraining for his vision of photography, so he left the club and formed his own group – the Photo-Secession composed of members he hand-picked himself.

In early 1902 Stieglitz responded to a request from the National Arts Club of New York with an exhibition of photographs by close friend of his. The title of the exhibit was An Exhibition of American Photography arranged by the Photo-Secession. He took his inspiration for the title and its rebellious character from the exhibition in Munich, Germany organized by the Secessionists. When asked why he chose the name Photo-Secession, his response was, “The idea of Secession is hateful to Americans – they’ll be thinking of the Civil War. I’m not. Photo-Secession actually means a seceding from the accepted idea of what constitutes a photograph.”

The membership in the group varied over time, but a number of important photographers formed its core, including Edward Steichen, Clarence H. White, Gertrude Käsebier, Frank Eugene, F. Holland Day and Alvin Langdon Corburn.

As part of the Photo-Secession group, Stieglitz created the magazine Camera Work, a publication that would promote the concepts and philosophy of the group. The first edition was published in December of 1902. Like Camera Notes, the magazine was of superb quality. The photographs were rendered as photogravures, ensuring that their quality was virtually indistinguishable from the original prints. Stieglitz’s goal for the magazine is captured in his words. “Only examples of such works as gives evidence of individuality and artistic worth, regardless of school, or contains some exceptional feature of technical merit, or such as exemplifies some treatment worthy of consideration, will find recognition in these pages. Nevertheless, the Pictorial will be the dominating feature of the magazine.”

The photographs of Edward Steichen were frequently featured in Camera Work. (Steichen is best known for his work, “The Family of Man,” an exhibition of 503 images mounted in the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1955. It is arguably the most successful exhibition ever presented. The book that resulted from the exhibition is no longer in print but new copies are still available for as little as $800.) Stieglitz and Steichen developed a close relationship that proved rewarding for both men over the years.

In 1904 Stieglitz took another trip to Europe to take a break from the stresses he was under. He collapsed in Berlin and required a month to recuperate.

Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession

In 1905 Steichen was living in a studio apartment on the top floor of a small building at 291 5th Avenue, New York. He approached Stieglitz with the idea that there were some rooms across from his apartment that would make a perfect gallery. Stieglitz was convinced and they set about creating the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession. On November 24, 1905 the gallery officially opened its doors.

The only people that showed up for the opening were members of the Photo-Secession who just happened to be in New York at the time. But the gallery was destined for greatness. Over the next few weeks hundreds of New Yorkers came to the gallery to see what Stieglitz had done this time.

However, the Little Galleries was not devoted only to photographs from the Photo-Secession group. 1906 saw four exhibitions that featured not only Phot-Secession photographers but photographers from France, Great Britain, Germany and Austria. All of the photographers, however, were of the Pictorialist movement.

The first year was so successful and received such critical acclaim that Stieglitz was beginning to feel that the kind of photography he was practicing and promoting, Pictorialism, was turning into what he most despised – an established institution, comfortable in its approach and methods, complacent.

So, he decided to stir the pot. Instead of continuing to only feature photographers, the first exhibit of 1907 was the modern art drawings of Pamela Coleman Smith. A positive review from an influential critic made this the most successful exhibit yet. It was so successful that it had to be extended for eight days.

Stieglitz the promoter of modern art had emerged.

 

Edward Steichen was also a promoter of modern art. He was friends with sculptor August Rodin whom he convinced to lend some of his drawings to the gallery. The opening exhibit of 1908 was titled “Drawings by August Rodin.” The train was out of the station, the die was cast and there was no turning back now.

But in that last year, something else happened what would turn out to be of profound significance. At the age of 17, Paul Strand visited the Little Galleries on a field trip with his high school camera club. He was so influenced by the exhibition of Photo-Secession photographers that he decided then and there he was going to be a photographer. Years later, Strand would return the favor and have a life-changing influence on Stieglitz.

291

Later in 1907, the Little Galleries moved across the hall for financial reasons and was reincarnated as simply 291, its 5th Avenue address. But the course that had been set in Little Galleries would only become stronger.

291 became not only a gallery for presenting Photo-Secession photographs but it became a vanguard in introducing great modern artists of diverse media to the New York public. In fact, in the years between 1909 and 1917, 61 exhibitions were mounted and only six of them featured photographers. The remainder were Avant Garde works by artists from the Americas and Europe.

Among the European masters introduced at 291 were August Rodin, Henry Matisse, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, Auguste Renoir, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Stieglitz and Steichen were instrumental in bringing the artistic tsunami that was raging in Europe to wash up on shores of American.

Straight Photography

It was during this time that two influential people came into Stieglitz’s life – Paul Strand (no longer a high school student) and Georgia O’Keeffe.

Stieglitz’s disenchantment with Pictorialism, the core of which espoused extensive manipulation of the final images, continued to grow. It was in 1923 that Stieglitz made his first photographs of a cloud. By this time, Stieglitz and Paul Strand had developed a close relationship built on mutual respect. In fact, the last two editions of Camera Work were devoted solely to Strand’s work.

clip_image008Strand was an advocate of ‘straight’ photography; that is, photographs that were not manipulated but rather were created using the unique processes, techniques and qualities of photography. Strand adopted the position that to make an expressive photograph you didn’t have to make it look like a painting.

Stieglitz decided to also adopt this approach. If photography was to be regarded as an art form, wouldn’t it be better if it stood on its own merits. The Pictorialist movement had proven that, with great effort, photographs could be made to look like paintings and, by association, photography was art. Now it was time for photography to leave this tradition and stand on its own unique merits.

Strand was also extending the range of photography by creating expressive photographs that were not so much about the physical object that was photographed as they were about a deeper significance. Stieglitz’s clouds project was perfectly suited for this. For the next 11 years he continued to photograph clouds, making prints that often did not resemble clouds at all but rather conveyed the feelings Stieglitz had when he took the photograph. When these prints were exhibited, many were hung in no particular orientation. It didn’t matter if they were sideways or upside-down. For this departure from photographing objective reality to crafting a subjective world, Stieglitz gave this collection the name “Equivalents.”  He described the collection in these words.  “I wanted to photograph clouds to find out what I had learned in forty years about photography. Through clouds to put down my philosophy of life – to show that (the success of) my photographs (was) not due to subject matter – not to special trees or faces, or interiors, to special privileges – clouds were there for everyone…”

Thus, Stieglitz followed Strand and together they contributed to expanding the boundaries of photography into the subjective and abstract world.

Meanwhile, Georgia O’Keeffe was developing her talents as a painter, student and teacher. Her clip_image011evolution also took her work beyond the mere accurate depiction of physical objects to a personal expression of inner meaning. Stieglitz saw her charcoal drawings and immediately held an exhibit of her work in 1917.

In 1918, Stieglitz invited O’Keeffe to move to New York. While O’Keeffe had been a student of art as well as a university professor, the move to New York marked the beginning of her career that was devoted exclusively to art.

After a brief romance between O’Keeffe and Strand that didn’t go anywhere, Stieglitz started photographing her, many of them in the nude. They became an item. Once when Emmy, Stieglitz’s wife, was out, Stieglitz invited O’Keeffe to his house for a nude photo session. Emmy returned unexpectedly and that marked the beginning of the end in their relationship. He immediately moved out. Soon Stieglitz and O’Keeffe were living together. The divorce took six years to finalize and in 1924 Stieglitz and O’Keeffe were married.

Stieglitz continued photograph O’Keeffe and over the years produced over 350 images of her. He also devoted himself to promote O’Keeffe’s work. For in her, he had found a soul mate, a person who shared his passion for self-expression through their chosen media.

In 1925 Stieglitz opened another gallery, the “Intimate Gallery,” nicknamed “The Room” because it was so small. Here he continued exhibiting American artists. In 1929 the building that housed The Room was to be torn down. Stieglitz was exhausted and depressed, so he retreated to Lake George to recharge.

In the meantime, Stand raised $16,000 so Stieglitz could open a new gallery. When Stieglitz found out, he was not appreciative saying that it was time to turn over the work he had been doing to younger ones. The gallery did open in New York on December 15th of that year but Stieglitz’s lack of appreciation for what Strand had done led to the demise of their relationship.

The new gallery was titled An American Place, or simply The Place. In it he held exhibitions for Ansel Adams in 1936 and Elliot Porter in 1938.

O’Keeffe spent summers in New York but the rest of the time she was in her beloved New Mexico. Stieglitz had an affair with a young office assistant, Dorothy Norman, and with that, O’Keeffe stopped returning to New York.

Stieglitz’s Legacy

The SteerageBeginning in 1938, Stieglitz’s health began to deteriorate. Over the next eight years, Stieglitz suffered six coronary or angina attacks. In the summer of 1946 Stieglitz suffered a stroke that put him in a coma. O’Keeffe rushed back to New York and stayed with him until he died on July 13, 1946.

It’s hard to grasp the enormity of the legacy Alfred Stieglitz left. He was one of the greatest early photographers who produced works that to this day are considered to be among the best ever made. The Steerage is widely considered to be his finest work.

He devoted his life to getting photography recognized as a valid form of art. First, he promoted the Pictorialist movement which created legitimacy for photographs by making them look like paintings, drawings and etchings. Next, he evolved into straight photography which established photography as an expressive art form in its own right, standing entirely on its own strengths and weaknesses.

He published magazines of the highest quality that promoted not only photographers but painters, sculptors and other artists.

He championed Modern Art in the galleries he established and the publications he produced, not only for American artists but European as well. In doing so, he introduced Americans to the great artists of the Modernism period.

But probably the most important contribution he made was his ability to make photographs that were not mindless replicas of the physical world, captured by a mechanical device. Instead, they are reflections of the photographer him or herself, their philosophy of life, the things they hold dear, their excitement for what they are photographing, their comments on the world they and we live in.

With his passion and unquenchable energy, he showed us that photography is an expressive medium through his own work and the works of those photographers he promoted. His legacy casts a very long shadow and is an inspiration to those of us who strive to follow in his steps.


This is the fifth in a series of posts under the title “The Shoulders on which We Stand.”  You can read the earlier posts here:

Modernism Changes Photography

Photography’s Struggle to be Recognized as Art – Pictorialism

The First Photographers: 1840 – 1860

In the Beginning There Was a Camera but No Film

Also, I invite you to join me on one of my photography workshops.

 

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Author: doinlight

Ralph Nordstrom is an award-winning fine art landscape photographer and educator. He lives in Southern California and leads photography workshops throughout the Western United States.

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