PICTORIALIST AND STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY Alfred Stieglitz Edward Steichen Edward Weston Paul Strand Minor White

Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) “In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.”

Born in New Jersey, studied photography in Germany, then lived and worked in New York City. Photographer, writer and editor, gallery owner, exhibit organizer, and activist. Career spanned more than 50 years, bridging the 19th and 20th centuries, and receiving 150 medals. Key figure to achieve acceptance of photography as an art form, and later “modern” art. The center of photographic progress was shifted from Europe to America by his efforts. Produced the most famous of photographic magazines, Camera Work, from 1903-17.

Started the Photo-Secession group (1902-1917) and Gallery 291, which promoted “Pictorialist” photographers (printing and retouching achieved soft focus and painterly effects) and served as a meeting place for photographers and modern artists. Cézanne, Picasso and others had their first American exhibitions here. His own photography was “straight and pure” (not manipulated) and stressed formal (elements & design) and metaphoric (story) qualities. Worked with Edward Steichen, and discovered Paul Strand. His marriage to artist Georgia O’Keeffe, who was 20 years younger than him, was one of the great American love stories, having a powerful synergistic effect on both their work.

Georgia O’Keeffe’s Hands (1920)

Georgia O’Keeffe’s Hands with Thimble (1920)

Hands of Dorothy Norman

Paula (c.1900)

The Steerage (1907)

“The Terminal” (1892)

Spring Showers in New York (1902)

From An American Place

Barn, Lake George

Mountain and Sky, Lake George (c.1930)

Edward Steichen (1879-1973) “Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face - the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited; and the wealth and confusion that man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.”

Born in Luxembourg, came to the US when he was two. Began photography in 1895, but also continued as a painter for 20 years. Early work was soft focus “pictorialism”. After WWI, practiced “straight” photography. Subjects included portraits, landscape, fashion, and advertising. Greatly impressed by the work of sculptor, Auguste Rodin.

Helped Stieglitz open and run the “291” Galleries of the Photo-Secession. Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art for 15 years. His “The Family of Man” was the most popular exhibit in the history of photography. One of the small group of individuals whose ideas, energy, and images helped to shape photography in the 20th century.

Greta Garbo (1928)

Gloria Swanson (1924)

Rodin’s Thinker

Balzac at Midnight (1908)

Rodin’s Balzac (1908)

The Flatiron (1905)

The Triumph of the Egg (1921)

Maypole (1932)

Matches and Matchboxes

“Heavy Roses” (1914)

Lotus (1915)

Edward Weston (1886-1958) “To compose a subject well means no more than to see and present it in the strongest manner possible.”

Born in Illinois, raised in Chicago, and later moved to California, Mexico City, then back to California. Attended Illinois College of Photography. Started as a door-to-door portrait photographer, then had his own portrait studio. In 1922, after meeting Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand in New York City, his style turned toward semi-abstractions in a precise hard-edged style. He called this style “Pre-visualization”. Working with a large-format camera and available light, he concentrated on revealing the subtleties of tone and the sculptural formal design of a single object in its “deepest moment of perception.”

In 1932, he helped to found the f/64 group of purist photographers, along with Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and others. In the late 1940’s, Parkinson’s disease hampered his work. From this point on, his sons, Brett and Cole, did the supervised printing from his negatives. His legacy of several thousand carefully composed, superbly printed, sensuously precise images have influenced photographers around the world for over 50 years.

Pepper, Number 30 (1930)

Shell (1927)

Artichoke Halved (1930)

Driftwood

Zabriskie Point

Point Lobos (1946)

White Dunes (1936)

Dunes Oceano (1936)

Nude (1925)

Nude

Nude

Nude (1936)

“Your photography is a record of your living.” Paul Strand (1890-1976) “Your photography is a record of your living.”

Born in New York City. Student of Lewis Hine, who introduced him to Alfred Stieglitz and the Photo Secessionists in 1907. Became a close friend of Stieglitz and an advocate of “straight” photography. His most popular works include direct street pictures (some taken with a concealed camera) and formally structured works, relying on shape, pattern, and repetition.

Created motion picture films from World War I until 1943. In 1945, the Museum of Modern Art had its first full-scale retrospective of a contemporary photographer with his work. He also had major retrospective exhibits at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum in early 1970’s. Lived most of his later life in France because of a fear of political persecution for his left-wing views in cold-war obsessed America.

Wall Street (1915)

City Hall Park (1915)

Untitled (1915)

Blind (1916)

Church (1944)

White Fence (1916)

Wire Wheel

Lathe, Number 3 (1923)

Leaves II (1929)

Minor White (1908-1976) “Be still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence. No matter how slow the film, Spirit always stands still long enough for the photographer It has chosen.”

Born and raised in Minnesota, but also lived in Oregon, New York, California, and Massachusetts. Influenced by psychology and Oriental philosophy, he launched the notion of expressive photography and the “reading of photographs.” One does not photograph something for “what it is, but for what it is not.” Taught photography for 30 years (1946-1976) at the California School of Fine Arts, R.I.T., and M.I.T., and was a curator at the George Eastman House. He devoted himself to bringing broad public recognition of photography as an art form and teaching the public to appreciate these images.

Worked and became good friends with Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, Paul Strand, Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and other prominent photographers. Was a founder of Aperture magazine (still the leading photographic periodical) and the Society for Photographic Education. The most influential photographer and teacher of photography in postwar United States.

Devil’s Slide (1947)

Warehouse (1949)

Capitol Reef (1962)

Peeled Paint (1959)

Snow on Garage Door (1960)

Vertical Surf (1947)

Windowsill Daydreaming (1958)

Barn and Clouds (1955)

House

Road and Poplar Trees (1955)