By Susana Garcia

Stieglitz was an American photographer and a modern art promoter. He was born on January 1, 1864 in Hoboken, New Jersey. He worked hard in the idea to promote fine art and was the creator of two periodicals, Camera Notes and Camera Work. His 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. He contributed a lot to the acceptance of photography as a form of art. Alfred Stieglitz created the first article for the Amateur Photographer in He founded the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue in New York, which later became known simply as 291. Stieglitz began photographing Georgia O’Keeffe a famous painter whom he worked with and later became his wife. One of the expensive photographs of Alfred was a print of Georgia O’Keeffe. In February 2006, it was sold for 1.47 million dollars. Stieglitz passed away on July 13, 1946.

Hortensia 1898 Katherine, Stieglitz‘s Daughter 1907 Autochromes

Black & white, the focal point is the hand, sharp focus Overhead light, texture of the pears, black background for contrast, and round brass bowl

“On the upper deck, looking over the railing, there was a young man with a straw hat. The shape of the hat was round. He was watching the men and women and children on the lower steerage deck…A round straw hat, the funnel leaning left, the stairway leaning right, the white drawbridge with its railing made of circular chains – white suspenders crossing on the back of a man in the steerage below, round shapes of iron machinery, a mast cutting into the sky, making a triangular shape…I saw shapes related to each other. I saw a picture of shapes and underlying that the feeling I had about life."

Georgia O’Keeffe's posed hands by Alfred Stieglitz sold for $1.472 million. Clawing hands, fingers pressing into flesh

He used two cameras to do his work: an 8" x 10" Eastman View with a Packard Shutter and a 4" x 5" Auto Graflex with old Goerz lenses. Stieglitz's photogravures are generally unsigned, and were printed under his supervision, sometimes using silver gelatin and platinum prints Majority of Stieglitz's photographs are vintage. Vintage means that the print date is at or near the same time as the negative date. General Format: 5" x 7" photogravures Stieglitz used natural elements such as smoke, rain, snow, and natural light to capture most of his images as well as soft light. Various techniques included: gelatin, lantern slides and autochromes. Stieglitz also toned his prints with gold, platinum and palladium prints. Sometimes he would use mercury toning for warmer color “Straight photograph” – images taken with smaller cameras and little manipulation.

The Flatiron, The Terminal, Georgia O’Keeffe- Neck

The Flatiron- This photograph works because it looks like a pictorialism piece of art. This image was dated 1903, the medium was photogravure and its dimensions were17.0 x 8.4 cm. The light most likely was natural light. This photograph looks soft with the snow on the trees and on the floor, giving it a gloomy and cold feel to it. Stieglitz used the rule of thirds on this photograph. It almost looks like it is overlapped on top of the building behind it. You can also see repeated pattern with the benches in the park and leading lines from the branches in the surrounding trees. Stieglitz does a good job at demonstrating its psychological view point of this cold and gloomy day, with the light contrast of the building and the dark color in the tree trunk. The Terminal- This photograph was taken using a 4 x 5 plate film camera, it was a hand held Folmer and Schwing camera. Dated 1893, the medium was photogravure and the dimensions were 12.1 x 16.0 cm. This image reflects a glimpse of the past with the horses and carriages on the street. You can see a little pictorialism and a modern look in this photograph. The steam surrounding the horses give it a soft painting look, while it also demonstrates urban life. Stieglitz captured a moment in time in this photograph. He managed to give this photo a natural feel in his point of view. There is texture in the snowy ground, and the number of horses also create depth while the building in the back tells us he took the photograph from a side position rather than a front view. Georgina O’Keeffe- Neck- Dated 1921, medium was palladium print, gelatin silver print, with dimensions of 23.6 x 19.2 cm. In this photograph Stieglitz uses the females neck as his subject. He uses framing and close ups in this image. He used soft light to soften the image giving it a sense of delicacy and softness. It was more of a composite portrait like many others he had done of O’Keeffe using her body as his main subject not as offensive art but rather as a way to demonstrate beauty. His psychological view point is tender, and delicate one. “Stieglitz attempted to record O'Keeffe in all her physical and emotional dimensions.”

I chose Stieglitz because he was one of the first photographers in America to begin a movement that inspired all different forms of art. He advocated for photography as a form of art in America. Stieglitz changed the art of photography by bringing new ideas. He captured images in different types of weather and photographed things that spoke to him. I also chose to examine Stieglitz because of the style and subject matter he chose to photograph. He decided to photograph more than 300 photographs of O'Keeffe alone and has beautiful photographs of landscapes, he captured in the moment, clouds, and different body parts, as well as photographs of people in general. His art style began as a pictorialist and changed overtime to more of a modernist style. Some of his images have both, a soft touch of pictorialism and then the sharp contrast of modernism a good example I think would be the photograph known as “The Terminal.” What appealed to me the most about Stieglitz was his change of style. He was not afraid to try new things and decided to do many nudes of O'Keeffe in a time when it was not common. He used O'Keeffe his wife body as his main subject. Author Miles Orvell writes “Stieglitz broke with conventions, by not romanticizing the female nude, but rather, exposing its intimate character, through unusual close-ups and framings.”

-“I was born in Hoboken. I am an American. Photography is my passion. The search for truth is my obsession.” -“The ability to make a truly artistic photograph is not acquired off- hand, but is the result of an artistic instinct coupled with years of labor.” -“I have a vision of life, and I try to find equivalents for it in the form of photography.” -“The goal of art was the vital expression of self.”

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