Alfred Stieglitz has been called the father of modern photography in that he was the first photographer to regard what he did as an art form as opposed to merely a method of documentation. He also played a major role in defining and shaping modernism in the United States, and in championing the work of artists in other fields besides his own.
He was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on 1st January 1864, the son of a wool merchant. As a child he showed an early interest in photography, but it was only after he was sent to Europe in 1881 to complete his education that he was able to study the subject. The Berlin Polytechnic offered a course in photochemistry, and Stieglitz quickly dropped his study of mechanical engineering to concentrate on this new discipline.
He travelled widely in Europe and entered photographic competitions, many of which he won by impressing the judges with the spontaneity of his work. Already at this young age he was doing something different with the medium and making waves.
On returning to the States in 1890 he began to experiment with this new art form, and faced the technical challenges of taking photographs at night and in snow and rain. He worked for a time in photo-engraving with the Heliochrome Engraving Company.
He joined a number of photographic organizations, including the Society of Amateur Photographers (which became the New York Camera Club), because he was keen to work with other photographers, share his ideas, and learn from the experience of others.
His keenness to promote photography as an art form can be seen from his taking on the editorship of a succession of journals, namely “American Amateur Photographer” (1892-96), “Camera Notes” (1897-1902), and “Camera Work” (1902-17).
“Camera Work” proved to be a leading force in the promotion of American photography, as it featured the work of all the leading photographers of the day, including Edward Steichen and Gertrude Kasebier. Stieglitz took great care to ensure that the quality of reproduction of photographs was of a high standard, such that they could be framed in their own right. The journal also featured articles by great writers of the day, including George Bernard Shaw and Gertrude Stein.
In 1905 Stieglitz founded the 291 gallery (in New York), which was devoted to featuring photography as a branch of fine art. In particular, he promoted the work of the “Photo-Secession” group, of which he was a founder member.
However, Stieglitz was also keen to promote other forms of modern art as well as photography. The 291 Gallery and “Camera Work” both featured the work of artists such as Picasso, Matisse and Cezanne. American artists including Max Weber and Gloria O’Keeffe also owed much to their promotion by Stieglitz.
Indeed, Stieglitz was so impressed by the abstract drawings of O’Keeffe that he mounted her first exhibition at 291, and then began to photograph her in ways that fused her body with her work. In all, he photographed her more than 300 times over a 20 year period and they became lovers, marrying in 1924.
The period 1917-25 saw Stieglitz’s best work, based partly on his collaboration with O’Keeffe. Having thoroughly mastered the technical side of photography, including the use of gelatin-silver printing to achieve sharp tonal contrast and high precision, he was able to develop the artistic possibilities of photography to new heights, influenced by the Modernist movement in art. Stieglitz’s series of photographs of New York was one of his greatest achievements, as were his cloud studies.
In 1925 Stieglitz opened the “Intimate Gallery” and in 1929 “An American Place”, as successors to 291, the latter operating until his death in 1946.
What Alfred Stieglitz did was to reconcile photography as an art form with other media such as painting, drawing and sculpture. In no way did he see the new medium as a replacement for any other, but as a companion for them, a “new eye” on the world that allowed for a different and complementary aesthetic. Stieglitz had hated the approach to photography adopted by the Kodak company, with their slogan “You press the button and we’ll do the rest”. For him, pressing the button was no more significant than dipping a brush into a paint pot. The artist could feel and emote with a camera just as much as he could with paint and canvas, and the history of photography since his time has done much to confirm that attitude.
© John Welford
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