Alfred Stieglitz - Photographs and Writings (Art Ebook)

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ALFRED STIEGLITZ
ALFRED STIEGLITZ
PHOTOGRAPHS & WRITINGS
Sarah Greenough
Juan Hamilton
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

Callaway Editions
THIS EXHIBITION
WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY A GENEROUS GRANT FROM

SPRINGS INDUSTRIES, INC.
CONTENTS
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Alfred Stieglitz and

^
The Idea Photography'^
Plates
ii
3j
Alfred Stieglitz
on Photography
Chronology
77
2^8
Selected Bibliography
Exhibition Checklist
List of Plates
246
240
241
Foreword
It
is
with great pleasure
that the National Gallery
of Art presents
^//re^^Scit'^/ifz,
most comprehensive exhibition yet mounted of this photographer's work. Although

tribution to the development of modem art
and photography
is
his
the
con-
recognized, our understand-
ing of StiegUtz's photographs as works of art remains hmited. His greatest images have not
been forgotten in the years since
examine the
death in 1946, but there have been few opportunities to
his
range of his work.
full
among
important position
the
Now,
since
photography has assumed an increasingly
arts, it is especially
appropriate to reevaluate the accompHsh-
ments of this master American photographer.

In 1949, after devoting three years to the organization and distribution of her late husband's
large collection of
modem
"key set" of his work

herself made
art
and photography, Georgia O'Keeffe generously donated the
to the National Gallery
of Art. She
also
put several hundred portraits of
by Stieghtz between 1917 and 1937 on long term loan and
to the original
gift.
Numbering approximately
lection includes at least
in 1980
added them
sixteen hundred, the Gallery's Stieghtz Col-
one print of every image that was
in the photographer's possession at
the time of his death. Because he rarely sold his photographs and infrequently gave prints to
friends, this collection represents virtually his
not Miss O'Keeffe's oidy concern in

ciating the
enormous
making
complete work. But comprehensiveness was
the gift; she
was
also conscious
ing each photograph, she selected the fmest prints for the key
drawn
exclusively
of quaUty. Appre-
care and effort Stieghtz had invested in personally printing and
from the
set.
mount-
This exhibition has been
Gallery's Stieghtz holdings.
The National GaOery is indebted
to
Miss O'Keeffe for more than her
initial
donation; her
continued interest in and support of its StiegHtz Collection has been unstinting. She has given
much time and energy to

generous aid
the preparation of this exhibition,
and
we are
grateful to her for her
funding the catalogue. Together with Miss O'Keeffe, guest curators Sarah
Greenough and Juan Hamilton have
selected the
photographs to be exhibited and repro-
duced. Their sustained attention to details of installation and production has insured the
success of this project.
special
she has
word of recognition and thanks
shown
is
due Ms. Greenough for the care and insight
in organizing the Gallery's Stieghtz Collection
Her introductory essay and her selection of Stieghtz's own

lished,
make
this
book an
especially valuable
Springs Industries, through
support to the exhibition.
mitment
to
photography
We
its
president,
and
writings,
complement
in conceiving this
show.
many previously unpub-
to the exhibition.
Walter Y. Ehsha, has contributed
significant
are grateful to Springs for the company's continuing
com-
as a fine art.
J.
Carter Brown
Director
Acknowledgments
The purpose of
away
strip
this exhibition and catalogue
is
to demystify Alfred Stieglitz: to
the label of prophet so frequently and uncritically applied to
him
comprehensive selection of his photographs and writings, to present him

as a
and, through a
first
and foremost
photographer. Neither the exhibition nor the catalogue would have been possible wathout
the assistance of Georgia O'Keeife and Juan Hamilton. Their enthusiastic support and perceptive evaluation
spent
many
of all aspects of this undertaking have been invaluable. Mr. Hamilton and
hours both in Washington and
New
Mexico where,
in consultation
we chose the photographs to be exhibited and reproduced. Our aim was to
O'KeefFe,
provide
an inclusive selection of StiegUtz's work in order to demonstrate the evolution of both
photographs and
in the catalogue,
his
Mr. Hamilton and
Stieghtz's photography. It
was
also
tried to maintain a balance
knovm were
between works never before
nevertheless central to the development
of
our intention only to include reproductions of the highest
We entrusted Eleanor Caponigro and the staff of Meriden Gravure Com-
possible quality.
this responsibihty,
and they deserve
reproducing Stieghtz's images. Ms. Caponigro

This exhibition
is
is
a special note
of recognition for
to be thanked for the design
faithfully
of the catalogue.
dravra exclusively from the National Gallery's "key set" of Stieghtz's
photographs; however, in the course of my research on StiegUtz
have consulted
many other
am grateful to the following individuals for assisting me in this research: Martha
collections.
Chahroudi,
assistant curator, Philadelphia
ment of photography, San

tant, Liternational
tor.
his
understanding of the medium. In choosing the images to be reproduced
pubHshed and those which while
pany with
with Miss
Francisco
Museum of Art; Van Deren Coke, director, depart-
Museum of Modem Art; Ann Copeland,
research assis-
Museum of Photography at George Eastman House; James Enyeart,
direc-
Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona; Grace Mayer, Steichen Archive
and the department of photography.

curator, Archives
Sue Reed,
Museum of Modem
Art;
Gamett McCoy,
of American Art; Weston Naef curator, MetropoUtan
assistant curator.
Museum
senior
of Art;
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; David Travis, curator, Art Institute
of Chicago.
I
would
also like to
of Stieghtz and
thank the following individuals for sharing with
his associates: Ansel
me their knowledge
Adams, Odette Appel-Heyne, Marie Rapp Boursault,
Georgia Engelhard Cromwell, Margaret Harker, Barbara Haskell, Kurt Herrmann, Douglas
Hyland, Valerie Lloyd,
S.
Davidson Lowe, Dorothy Norman, Sarah
W.
Peters,
Dorothy
Schubart, and Herbert J. Seligmami.
David Schoonover, curator, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University,
greatly facihtated
my selection and editing of Stieghtz's letters. I am grateful to the Beinecke
Rare Book and Manuscript Library for permission to pubhsh the Stieghtz
letters
from
its
collection.
letters to
versity
and
Although the large majority of StiegHtz's
Ansel
Adams and
of Arizona;
Paul Strand are
his letters to
letters are at
at the
Lotte Schonitzer-Kiihn
owns
F.
Library, Chicago;
pubhsh
letters
from
it
to be
pubUshed in
this
Kuhn,
volume.
Barrow, Beaumont Newhall, Alan Trachtenberg, and John Wilmerding
read the manuscript of
tliis
catalogue at various stages of
its
completion.
their collections.
the original of StiegUtz's letter to her father, Heinrich
dated 15 August 1923, and she has graciously allowed
Thomas
Newberry
at the
Royal Photographic Society, Bath, England.
institutions for their permission to
wish to thank these
the Beinecke Library, his
the Center for Creative Photography, Uni-
Sherwood Anderson
Dudley Johnston
his letters to J.
at
am
all
indebted to
them for their suggestions not only on my essay, but also on the selection of Stieghtz's writings.
The stafFof the National Gallery has been most helpful. I owe a particular debt of gratitude
to C. Douglas Lewis, curator of sculpture,
me
and the Kress Foundation for appointing
Kress Fellow in 1978 and 1979 to organize and accession the Gallery's Stieghtz Collection,
and to Jacquelyn Sheehan, former
assistant curator in the
department of graphic
arts,
for her
my initial work on both the collection and the exhibition. The members
of graphic arts also provided much assistance: my thanks go to Andrew
wise counsel during
of the department
Robison and Diane Russell for
and
Lynn Gould
to
their advice
and support during
for her unfailing attention to the
all
numerous
phases of this exliibition,

details
acknowledge with appreciation the departments of photographic
show.
lation
and design as well
as Shelley Fletcher
of organizing
services
and
this
instal-
and Catherine Nicholson, conservators, and Hugh
Phibbs, matter-framer, for their careful and thorough attention to the photographs.
The
catalogue has benefited greatly from the thoughtful suggestions of Frances Smyth, editor-inchief,
and
it
Finally,
has been enriched
thank
by Mei Su Teng's
intelligent editing.
my husband, Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr.
Throughout
my work on this project
he has given
and constructive
criticisms
of appreciation.
me much support and encouragement, and his perceptive

have helped me clarify my thoughts. He deserves a special note
Sarah Greenough
ALFRED STIEGLITZ
AND
THE IDEA PHOTOGRAPHY'
The arts equally have distinct departments, and unless photography has its own
possibilities
of expression, separate from those of the other
hut granted that
an
it is
art, reliance
that they
may
merely a process, not an
arts, it is
should he placed unreservedly upon those
made
be
art;
possibilities,
to yield the fullest results.
ALFRED STIEGLITZ, IpOll
A MAN
OF
MANY ACCOMPLISHMENTS, ALFRED
central figure in the
Stieglitz was
Camera Notes (1897-1902) and Camera Work (1903-1917), and

raphers, the Photo-Secession,
of
expression.
artistic
perhaps
He
in his organization
he crusaded for the acceptance of photography
the
Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue in
of the time: Henri Matisse was
first
series
of exhibitions
New York
at
(later called
shown in America at 291
The
as a
of photog-
vahd form
modem
art to
Little Galleries
of the
major role in the introduction of
also played a
America. Beginning in 1908 he held a
art
development of early twentieth-century photography. In his pubhcations,
291) of the most avant-garde

in 1908,
Henri Rousseau and
Paul Cezanne in 1910, and Pablo Picasso in 1911. Even after the sensational exhibition of
modem art at the Armory Show in

tation: Francis Picabia's
1913, 291 continued to be a center of artistic experimen-
work was shown
and Constantin Brancusi's and Georges
in 1913
Braque's in 1914.
In the midst of the excitement generated
look American
and
Max Weber in
American
and
artists.
at
after the close
writers and
His
artists.
crirics as
Carlos
by
the
new European
art,
Marin and Marsden Hartley
of 291 in 1917,
American Place from 1929
attention to visual
WiUiam
exliibited John
Stieghtz did not overin 1909,
Arthur Dove
1910, and Georgia O'Keeffe in 1916; and he continued to support these
even
artists,
An
He
own
at
the Intimate Gallery
to his death in 1946.
Nor
from 1925
to 1929
did StiegUtz confine his
inquiry into the American character aUied
him with such
Sherwood Anderson, Hart Crane, Waldo Frank, Paul Rosenfeld, and
WiUiams who were,
him, concerned with discovering and cultivating
like
an indigenous American culture.

These contributions have been justly noted. Numerous exhibitions, books, and
have been devoted to the
efforts
as a fine art, to Stieghtz's introduction
of American painters and

htz's crusade for
overlooked.
true,
of course,
photographer, but they do
never examining
it
of modem European
writers.^ But,
photography and
It is
articles
of StiegUtz and the Photo-Secession to estabhsh photography
little
somewhere
art to
in the midst
America, and to
his
support
of this veneration of Stieg-
art, his
own accomphshments as a photographer have been
that
discussions
all
more than
deeply. This neglect
is
that,
of Stieghtz acknowledge
making
that he
passing reference to his
was
work but
ironic because Stieghtz did not consider liimself a
would have abhorred), but
gallery director, publisher, or popularizer (labels he
American photographer. Late

have to be judged for
I'll
When
my own
finally
am
it is
visible results,
thing larger and
more profound, something
undertaking
photographer: a search for what he termed "the tneamng of the
as a
raphy."'' For Stieghtz
have,
its
saw
own set of standards;
that
or even the function of the other
it
by continually
it
distinct
why
think
an
testing
of some-
medium";
that
style,
photog-
idea
had, or should
it
the subject matter,
Understanding "the idea photography" became an

It
was not
ideal to
a fixed
which he
and constant concept,
aspired.
He
why
it
was not
sought to discover
and challenging both the science and the
photography. The "idea photography" was the reason

Secession,
permeated and propelled Stieghtz's entire
should not blindly emulate the
arts.
almost philosophical inquiry for StiegUtz.
an a priori conviction, nor was

pragmatically,
that
photography was "a
that
rather an
judged
usually for their iimovations in style,
and technique. But these are the manifestations, the
subject matter,
to be
photographic work."^
photographs are considered
StiegHtz's
"When
he wrote,
in his life
StiegHtz
aesthetics
it
of
formed the Photo-
he pubhshed Camera Notes and Camera Work, and
European and American
for
art,
all
of these outlets allowed
why he exhibited modem

him to test the medium. He
examined the mechanics and chemistry of photography, questioning the inherent and unique
characteristics
of the process; he compared photographic expression to that of other
modes; and he explored
how
he could express himself through photography
understand "the idea photography."
He
artistic
all of this to
did not try to compartmentahze photography nor
medium anything so codified as a defmition was

but rather through a series of demonstrations he attempted to show
did he wish to arrive at a defmition of the
anathema
to Stieghtz
what photography might
be, technically, formally,
Stieghtz's first understanding
and expressively.
of "the idea photography" was
scientific
a mechanical engineering student at the Technische Hochschule in

studied photography with the
renowned
ating chemical and mechanical
improvements
was a major
wanted
to
scientist
in
photography
expose a negative, or to see

It
was the
science
photographic
to determine, for example,
how
This
new
which Vogel
medium and his
how
He
fdm and printing paper were
httle
skill,
StiegUtz
hght was necessary to
quickly he could take, develop, and print a photograph.
of photography that challenged and stimulated him: "Being told
tain pictures could not be taken
to invent
at this time, in
he
proHfer-
about the process of photography.
capable of recording. Constantly testing the hmits of both the
made numerous experiments
in the 18 80s
Hermann Wilhelm Vogel. The
participant, fueled Stieghtz's curiosity
know what the camera could do, what
and functional. As
Berhn
made me
disregard a
number of accepted
practices
that cer-
and seek
ones."^
scientific interest naturally affected Stieghtz's
photographs. Although he frequently
traveled through
Europe
works from
period were those that necessitated overcoming technical problems.
tliis
in search
of picturesque subjects to photograph,
13
his
most innovative
The
formal, almost abstract patterning of light and shade in
Sun Rays, Paula, 1889
{no. 7),
the result of his

thetical
tests
{no. 8),
or
A Street in
1890
Street in Sterzing, the Tyrol,
Bellagio,
1894
{no. 9), for
example, were
of the medium's capabUity to record extreme contrasts of Hght. (Paren-
numbers are given
after titles for
photographs reproduced in
book.)
this
When
he
consciously set about to make, as he said, "pictures," not photographs, his images were
by the Barbizon and German genre
usually quite derivative, strongly influenced
later,
Henry Emerson.
Peter
1894.^)
was
It
painters
Max Liebermann) and by the photographers Henry Peach Robinson or, somewhat
(especially
as if
(See, for
example,
Tlie
Net-Mender, 1894, or Gossip
Katwyk,
conquering the technical problems of photography freed him from the
of time-worn picturesque themes of painting and allowed him to explore more
repetition
unusual and more photographic subjects.
When StiegUtz returned to the United States
in
esque: in The Street Paver, 1893 {no. 11), or The

to the street people
But,
was
as
few of the
time, and
New York
blatantly evident to Stieghtz,
had photographed
had no quaint peasants
it
in his
unlike the major
Picker, 1893 (?),
he found an equivalent
fruit sellers, cobblers, masons whom he had photographed in Europe.^
subjects Stieghtz
Moreover,
1890 he continued to look for the pictur-
Rag
wish to make
cities
in native dress
pictures,
of Europe,
its
working
New and raw,
it
had
architecture lacked the patina of
at their age-old traditional chores.
not photographs, Stieghtz had few models to follow;
New York had not traditionally inspired artists to depict its
and waterways. Lamenting
buildings, streets, parks,
was not Europe.
in Europe:
lack of charm,
its
American
painters
before Stieghtz fled either to the countryside or to Europe in search of fit subjects.
But
Stieghtz did not
Along with other American
flee.
1900S, including Stephen
artists
New York City as the subject for his art.
Although somewhat
hesitantly at
the city, as he had wandered over Europe, to find and root out
as
when he was
a student, his most important photographs of
nical experiments.
city,
and writers of the 1890s and
Crane and the so-called Ash Can school of painters, Stieghtz adopted
He found
that rain or
its
first,
he explored
picturesque aspects. And,
New York resulted from tech-
snow or evening hght
softened the harshness of the
imparting a charm that was not evident in the clear hght of day. Traditionally, however,
photographs had not been made under such adverse conditions. Using one of the newly
invented small, and waterproof, hand cameras, Stieghtz photographed Winter,
1893
(o. 12),
and The Savoy
photographs to be taken
at
night or in rain and
different printing techniques.
New York,
also
made
artistic
Stieghtz
extensive
reduced
if
it
To
snow
increase their impact,
Fifth
Avenue,
These were some of the
storms.
He
also
first
experimented with
and perhaps to mirror the
scale
of
made carbon and photogravure enlargements of these photographs. He

tests
photographers
nized that
Hotel, Neiv York, 1898 {no. 14).
with lantern shdes. Although
as the inconsequential
the lantern shde
was
treated
it
had been previously scorned by
toy of the Sunday hobbyist, Stieghtz recog-
properly
if it
was toned,
if
its
highhghts were
could be an effective means of presenting his work. In short, Stieghtz's knowl-
14
edge of photography grew out of the best
of amateurism.
spirit
He
did not categorically
dismiss any printing process, developing technique, or camera because
it
was out of fashion
or considered too complicated. Rather, through his constant experimenting, he explored the
medium, appropriating those techniques of use

Stieghtz's exploration
to his art.
of photographic processes and
of the me-
his successful challenges
dium's accepted limits led him to believe that photography was, or could be compelled to be,
much more
articles
was generally supposed. He argued, both
flexible than
and through
his
of his machine, but that he could control

it
to."* It
was
this
in his
many
photographs themselves, that the photographer was not
beHef in the
plastic
it,
manipulate
it,
and make
"do what
it
technical
at the
[he]
mercy
wanted
nature of photography, rooted firmly in his knowledge
of its science and technology, that led
Stieglitz to
champion
so ardently the merits of artistic
photography. For what he came to understand was that photography, rather than being a
mere mechanical
artists,
and
like
process,
them
was
medium, analogous
subject to control
and
to
any of the other media available
dictation; that
it
was a
to
flexible process fully
capable of artistic expression.

In the late 1890s StiegUtz gathered about
common
him
group of photographers whose main and
concern was to demonstrate the flexibihty of their medium. Edward Steichen,
Gertrude Kasebier, Clarence H. White, and Frank Eugene,
among
others, sought to
expand
and enrich the expressive range of photography through the use of different printing processes
(including platinum,
gum
bichromate, and carbon, as well as combinations of their
invention) and, most obviously,
or the print. In
its
painting, or scratching
highest form, manipulation was not an end in
virtuosity, but the result
a record
by drawing,
of aesthetic
theories.
on
itself,
own
either the negative
not a mere display of
These photographers beUeved that
much less an imitation of the phenomena of the world, but an
art
was not
expression of an
What was important to them was not the depiction of the subject in front of the
how that subject could be made to be expressive of the feelings or thoughts of the
artist's spirit.
camera, but
photographer. Through their choice of subjects and their printing techniques, they sought to
cultivate a distinctive style, an artistic personaUty. "Individualism," StiegUtz said in
view in 1902, was the

picture as
you
see
it,
secret
an inter-
of pictorial photography, "the working out of the beauty of the
unhampered by conventionaHty unhampered by anything
not even
the negative."'
This conviction, which was most fully and conclusively developed in Camera Notes and
the early issues of Camera Work, was heavily indebted to the symbolist
literature
artistic
of the 1880s and 1890s. For
this
photography could no longer
movement
in art
and
generation of photographers, art and especially
be, as G.-A. Aurier
wrote in 1892, "the simple imita-
tion of material things."^" Instead of merely recording the objective world, faithfully docu-
menting
its
people, places, and events, photography
and suggestive of meanings and
ideas.
"Art
is
above
15
must be expressive of artistic personahty,
all
things an interpreter of the artist's character,
his emotions, his intellectual
powers," a
a matter of going deeply into the
Camera Notes wrote.
critic in
artist's
own
It is,
he continued, "more
nature than an imitation of the unusual and
unfamihar forms that surprise one in travel."'*

Stieghtz vigorously
championed
subjective
and expressive photography. As editor of
Camera Notes and Camera Work he pubhshed numerous
making it the dominant
aesthetic,
theoretical issue
articles
explaining and defending this
under discussion. In 1902, when he formed
the Photo-Secession, an organization committed to proving the
artistic
he chose photographers whose work conformed to
By
Photo-Secession had reached
could be an
For
art.
this goal,
was in
it
this
this theory.
merit of photography,
1910 Stieghtz beheved the
having conclusively demonstrated that photography
year that the Albright Art GaUer)^ asked
him
to arrange an
He was
exhibition of pictorial photography. This event was a personal triumph for StiegUjz.
given complete control of the selection and organization of the exhibition, eight rooms were
placed at his disposal, and over five hundred photographs were exhibited. But,
cantly, the Albright Art Gallery signaled
twelve photographs for
its
permanent
had accepted photography into

It is
its
oj
more
signifi-
shown by purchasing
American
art
museum
halls.
astonishing and curious, considering the prominence Stieghtz gave to the pictorial
To
the group's guiding theories.
Hand
approval of the works
collection. Finally, a traditional
hallowed
photographs of the Photo-Secession, that
by
its
Man, 1902
transcriptions
of New York
of architecture,
and nature
(no. 13).
in a
trees,
And
at this
time his
own work was
largely unaffected
be sure, he occasionally used symboHc
his
titles,
such
as
The
photographs are certainly not simple documents or
turn of the century but with their pointed juxtapositions
at the
and people, allude to larger issues specifically the relationship of man
modem city.
Also, he did
make a few manipulated images,
and, as in the
work
of the Photo-Secession, the tonal range of his photographs from the turn of the century
is
more compressed than that of his earUer work. Despite these similarities, however, and despite
the fact that
it
was through the
demonstrate the
from
theirs.
pictorial
work of the Photo-Secession
The Photo-Secession
cultivated an obhque, suggestive art,
which were neither geographically, temporally, nor

graphs,
by
contrast, are definite
was decidedly of the

virginal
women.
late nineteenth
Stieghtz's
tation,
its
modes of
subjects
misty,
New York
atmospheric landscapes and ethereal,
City, the
most obviously modern
city
to photograph blatant manifestations of
transportation and
its
architecture.
of
New
The Hand of Man was
most dramatic depiction of the power and dynamism of contemporary transpor-
but in photographs such
if subtler, interest in the
same time
century
was
Moreover he chose
the twentieth century.
employing
physically specific. Stieghtz's photo-
and exphcit.'^ xhe subject matter of the Photo-Secession
StiegUtz's subject
York's modernity,
that Stieghtz chose to
merit of photography, his photographs were essentially quite different
artistic
that the
as
From
My
Window New
York, 1902, he evinced a similar,
movement of people and things through
the city.'^
members of the Photo-Secession began to coalesce that

16
It
was
Stieghtz
also at the
first
photo-
graphed the skyscrapers of
And
not coincidental
it is
New
York, a subject he would pursue throughout
of
that,
all
photograph the Flat-iron Building. For many people, including Stieghtz,
symboHze the
to
wedge-shaped
this
many as a ship's prow on which the waves of the future would
building (described by
came
his career.
the skyscrapers available to him, Stieghtz chose to
growth which had
architectural
radically transformed
break),
New York at
the turn of the century.'''
At no time were the

Secession
differences
more apparent than in
between
1910.
Stieghtz's
made
in the Albright Art Gallery exhibition, Stieghtz
with a directness and
of vision unknown in
clarity
photographs and those of the Photo-
As if in response to the allusive and elusive photographs

a series
of photographs of New York

photography. In these photo-
pictorial
graphs he leapt beyond the Photo-Secession's elegies to the past, their nostalgia for a quieter
and simpler time. His pictures of skyscrapers,
were icons of the twentieth century,
style.
not only their subject matter which
New New
his picture
in his
Instead in photographs such as
of the ferry boat
photograph of The
and appreciated
[no. if),
York, 1910.15
modem, however,
but also their
his
York, 1898, or The
Steerage {no. 18)
composition with
why
made in 1907,
are constructed
but probably
first
understood
around relationships of shapes. '^
nouveau arabesques,
art
Hand of Man, but by
Certainly one of the reasons
Outward Bound, The Mauretania, 1910, or
Stieghtz expressed a strong interest in formal concerns.
1910 these works
in
no longer united
this
strikingly
A dominant concern for atmosphere that most prized element of pictorial photography
was ehminated.
As
is
liners
bespeaking the modernity of their subject
matter: The City of Ambition, 1910, and Old and

It is
and ocean
airplanes, ferry boats {no. 17),
their titles
as in
An
Icy Night
He
New
repeated geometrical shapes.''^
Stieghtz
time was the influence on him of modem
made photographs of such

art.
In 1907 and 1909 he
striking currency at
went to Europe where,
under the direction of Steichen, he was introduced to the work of many avant-garde painters,
including Matisse and Cezanne, and he was taken to 27, rue de Fleurus, the
Gertrude Stein. In 1908 he showed Matisse and Auguste Rodin

before he
made
American
his
many of whom were

Stieghtz's appreciation
European
works by Dove, Hartley, Marin, and Weber. These
in 1910 strongly influenced
painters,
Steichen recounted that
to Stieghtz, and Stieghtz himself
Cezanne's praises
by Cezaime, most
at this time,
he was the most well-informed about advanced
Weber
pointed out the flaws in pictorial photography
acknowledged
was "helpful
in a
Weber, who was continually singing
that
way
in clarifying [his]
own
The work of these modem artists, both American and European, caused
sider the premises
artists,
directly stimulated
of the formal aspects of art and photography. Weber was particularly
of all these American
art.
home of Leo and
And just a few months
photographs of New York, Stieghtz arranged an exhibition of "Younger
Painters," including
influential;
at 291.
on which
the Photo-Secession
was
based.
photography could be a responsive medium, open to the
17
ideas."'^
Stieghtz to recon-
He had wanted
aesthetic
to
prove that
and expressive require-
ments of the
visioned.
artist,
but by 1910
Many of his
origins in the mechanical
not appear to be the
this idea
had been carried
extreme he had never en-
to an
colleagues beheved that in order for a photograph to be "artistic"
and chemical process of photography must be concealed:
work of a machine, but
though, photography had
won
the coveted
matter, and even the look of the other
James McNeill Wliistler and George
the product of an artist.
arts.
(Steichen's styHstic
style, subject
and iconographic debt to
example, was enormous,
Inness, for
Thomas Dewing and J. Alden Weir.) Not only
its
must
Even more importantly,
of "art" by appropriating the
title
it
was White's to
as
did such photographs look conspicuously
old-fashioned compared to works by Matisse or Dove; they also looked distinctly unphotographic. In their slavish imitation of other art, the Photo-Secession
that
photography could express an
artistic
was
to consider the issue that photography
was,
as StiegUtz
had written
essentially different
in 1902, "a distinct
acteristics?
How
was
on photography
it
different
in general.
from the other
Photo-Secession.
What were
an
art,
then
it
from the other fme
arts?
might be more accurately judged. i'

Secession; perhaps
was
It
He declared,
must be compared with other
it
arts in
It
Did
it
Picabia, Brancusi,
it
prompted him
have the same function
He
again in 1910, that
order that
also
as
did not, however,
if photography
"its possibUities
to understand "the fundamental idea
was
and hmitations"
of photography."
for this reason that after 1910 StiegUtz practicaUy ceased to exhibit
series
that
Modem art had shown Stieghtz the fallacy of the Photo-
would help him
291 and instead held a
arts,
photography's distinctive char-
they did? These questions engrossed StiegHtz between 1910 and 1917.
seek their answers in photography alone.
demonstrated
medium."
Modem art led StiegUtz to reject the work of the

to meditate critically
may have
personaUty, but they had failed to explore or even
of shows of
modem
art Cezanne,
photography
at
Picasso, Braque, Matisse,
and Gino Severini; and the Americans Marin, Hartley, Dove, and O'Keeffe
and exhibitions of African sculpture and Mexican

shows were demonstrations, experiments, designed
pottery between 1911 and 1917. These
to reveal the
"fundamental idea of paint-
ing" and, by contrast and impUcation, "the fundamental idea of photography."'^'^

It
on
was cubism, and
Stieglitz's
specifically the
work of Picasso, which had
drawings and watercolors were shown

turist
Marius de Zayas,
this
was
tion to the exhibition, written
many
most
by de Zayas and
Zayas wrote, "receives
velops, and translates
it,
by Steichen and
at 291. Selected
Picasso's first exhibition in the
Americans, including StiegUtz, with their
Picasso, de
the
significant effect
understanding of "the idea photography" in the 1910s. In April 1911 Picasso's
later reprinted in
first
a direct impression
and afterwards executes
United
it iji
the
Mexican
States.
The
Camera Work, provided
explanation of the tenets of cubism.
from
his
external nature, he analyzes, de-
own
particular style, with the inten-
tion that the picture should be the pictorial equivalent of the emotion produced
The
abstracted, formal patterns
on the canvas
of nature, but a translation of Picasso's
are not, de
intellectual
18
carica-
introduc-
by nature.
Zayas explained, a representation
and emotional response to
it.
In presenting
his
work he wants
the spectator to look for the emotion or idea generated
and not the spectacle
StiegHtz beheved that the exhibition of Picasso's
one held
and he
at 291,
And he
expression the true medium."
who would
spectacle
work was
"possibly the most interesting"
enthusiastically accepted the idea that art, in order to represent
than material presence, must be abstract. Abstract
arts"
from the
itself."-^^
"bring back art to
art,
he wrote, was "a
applauded Picasso
as
true expression."
He
its
more
new medium of
"the great force in the plastic
even went so
far as to praise
Picasso for his "antiphotographic" vision.^^
Many theories were proposed at this time to justify abstract art. One of the most common
was
ones, especially in the United States,
no longer be
representational;
graphic" that
should
is,
we
time of the
any longer to record material
"when
no coincidence, of course,
It is
For
StiegHtz
better.
did,
it
and
as painters
things,"
Picabia asserted, a
could
The
artists
facts
and
critics associated
with 291.
about objects of human beings,"
those
artists
tell
them so well?" And
"who
decline to
go on
"^3
that at the very time StiegHtz

also
began to champion the notion
began to mention the "idea photography."

as StiegHtz
painting and photography were antithetical, what, then, was photog-
if
were
blindly emulate their works.
mere outside of
art
"antiphotographic."
and that painting must be "antiphoto-
commended
must be "antiphotographic," he
raphy? As long
mere
and
But
satisfied to depict external reaHty,
must,
if art
if the artist
copyist,
rapher to create works of art?^^
as StiegHtz
who
more than "the
represented the facts of the world was, as
what was photography
What was
photographers could
wrote, represent
to depict and
how was
the photog-
the role of photography in the age of abstract
what, indeed, was the "fundamental idea of photography"?
was not StiegHtz but de Zayas who most
It
"Photography
Art
of photography,
it,
photography Hberated painting from the necessity of depicting reaHty,
if
beheved
art;
termed
the camera in the hands of an artist can
Armory Show
doing merely what the camera does
that painting
antithetical
abstract was widely held by the

try
Picabia asked in 1913,

at the
that with the invention
be, as StiegHtz
and photography were
belief that painting
"Why
had to
it
is
is
clearly explained the
the expression of the conception of an idea. Photography
fact."25 Far
new role of photography.
not Art," de Zayas wrote in Camera Work in 1913.
from condemning photography, de Zayas celebrated
trating the "objective reaHty of forms." In art the depiction
is
it
"It
is
not even an
art.
the plastic verification of

as a
way of fmaUy
pene-
of form was always subservient
to self-expression, but de Zayas beheved that the photographer "puts himself in front of
nature,
he
and without preconceptions
tries to arrive at a
tries to
get out of her a true state of conditions"
"comprehension of the object."^^ The photographer brushes aside the
misconceptions that hide reaHty from
us, for his
aim
is
not to give aesthetic pleasure, but to
"acquire a truth." Art has taught us to feel the emotions of the
because
it
artist,
but photography,
presents reaHty to us in a heightened state of awareness, allows us to reaHze our
19
own
emotions about the scene presented. In
this
own spirit, revealed their own essence.

De Zayas also beUeved that Stieghtz was "a
way, de Zayas believed, forms expressed
their
pure photographer," the
subjectand"searchfor the pure expression of the object."^''
wrote in 1915 of StiegUtz's photograph The

objectivity of the outer world."
Stieglitz in his
to express his
Steerage,
to eliminate the
showing
us
by means of a machine "the
he continued, "objective truth takes precedence over
work" that is, the presentation of nature was paramount, he did not use forms
own subjectivity .^^
was
Stieghtz
And
first
"He has surpassed 'Art,' " de Zayas
in full accord
with de Zayas' theory of "pure" photography, despite the
that or perhaps even because de Zayas pronounced photography "not
fact
de Zayas'
htz,
were
articles
on photography,
certainly sparked
first article
by conversations with
on photography was pubhshed
in
art." Indeed,
the result of a collaborative effort .with Stieg-
if not partly
liim.^' It
was shortly before de Zayas'
Camera Work that Stieghtz
wrote about
first
"antiphotographic painting," a concept essential to de Zayas' theory of pure photography

because
it
proposed that painting and photography were opposites. Shortly afterwards, he
adopted de Zayas' term "pure photography." Moreover, in April 1913, expressing

acceptance of
this
theory, Stieghtz declared that with de Zayas' articles "the
medium of expression is finally getting its
photography
as a
de Zayas, in
his essay
raphy."^
De
on The
Steerage,
Although Stieghtz would

de Zayas, beheved that
is
my
passion.
later invest the idea
direct,
in 1915
he stated that
The
search for Truth
my obsession. "3'
of truth with metaphysical overtones, he,
like
pure photography could reveal the objective reahty of form,
was not the function of photography
it
and
"had looked into the deeper meanings of photog-
Zayas' articles are also the source for Stieghtz's often quoted (and often mis-
understood) statement, "Photography
that
place,"
his full
meaning of
to give aesthetic pleasure, but to provide visual
"truths" about the world.

thus also
It is
no coincidence
that in the winter
of 1915-1916 Stieghtz made a
extremely formal and objective photographs from the back
Made
at
window of 291
series
of
{iios.
20 and 21).
night and in the snow, they are reminiscent of his photographs of New
York from
the turn of the century.
But in the earher works darkness and weather softened the
and angles of the
making
city,
it
more
rigid lines
picturesque; in these they intensify shapes and pat-
terns.
Compositionally these pictures are also reminiscent of some of his 1910 photographs
of the
city: in
jects, in the
Outward Bound, The Mauretania or The City of Ambition Stieghtz included ob-
foreground, cropped by the bottom of the picture frame, whose shapes are re-
peated in the middle and background. In From the
igiS,OTFrom the Back-Window "291," 1915
But the 1915-1916 photographs go beyond

influences
art.
In
on
them
Stieghtz's
Stieglitz
work of both de
Back-Window ''291" Buildings
{no. 21),
in
Snow,
he used this same compositional device.^^
their precedents
and in so doing indicate the
Zayas' theory of pure photography and
began to repress subject matter
as
dc Zayas had written
modern
in 1913, in
more
order
fully to study
form. The 1910 photographs displayed a growing interest in form,
but they are not purely formal or objective studies; they have emphatic subject matter
York) and content
(Stieghtz's celebration
of that
dawn of the
city at the
In comparison, his 1915-1916 photographs are relatively subjectless,
symbohc or
Their
iconic.
The City of Ambition, but denotative: From

1916
And
(mo. ig).
They
objective approach.
titles reflect this
(New
twentieth century).
more
objective,
and
are not connotative,
less
Uke
the Back-Window " 291" Building in Construction,
compression of space, their simphfied geometric forms, and the
in their
between two-dimensional surface and three-dimensional objects, these 1915-
resulting tension
1916 photographs taken from 291 clearly
understanding of cubism.
reflect Stieglitz's
and pure form led him to bring
Stieghtz's search for objective truth
his
camera nearer and
nearer to the objects he was photographing. Between 1915 and the early 1920s he frequently
got so close to an object that he cut
and
isolated
it
pure form. In
as
off from
it
his portrait
its
surroundings, divorced
from dark backgrounds, severed from the arms and body

work,
his portrait
from
senting her as she was seen
and
in these
from
its
context,
which they belong;
is
in another
photographed against a back-
too just another shape, and not a functional Umb.^^
it
superimposing True's face over her
discloses decisions
to
of Dorothy True, 1919, a truncated leg
ground of geometric forms, making
By
it
o Helen Freeman, 1922, hands and wrists emerge
leg, StiegUtz also
constructed a cubist portrait, pre-
different angles at different
moments. This bold framing
about the placement of the camera, about what to include and exclude,
ways repeatedly
presence of the photographer. In objective or pure
asserts the
photography, the photographer expressed

sive printing techniques, as in pictorial
his creativity
not through manipulation or expres-
photography, but through
his seeing, his distinctive
and decisive vision of the world.
During and
so
after the
war pure photography made many converts from
many other movements
in art
and hterature such
as DeStijl
or
pictoriaUsm. Like
imagism objective pho-
tography represented the postwar generation's desire for precision and order. Paul Strand,
Edward Weston
Charles Sheeler, and
adopted
this
are
among
the most
well-known photographers
Henri Bergson,
who
posited that the
human mind
can not comprehend anything which
aUve and developing. In order to truly understand any phenomenon, the mind must
the flow of time. Like a camera,
had the unique capabihty

beUeved that
it
object depicted.
of the thing
reveal
its
who
approach. Along with Stieghtz and de Zayas, they were strongly influenced by
must break time into separate
it
to capture
and record an
instant
units.
is
arrest
Because photography
of time, these photographers
could reveal not only the true condition of form, but also the essence of the
Weston wrote of his
itself,"
essential quahties.^'*
of the object and
attempts to render "the very substance and quintessence
and Stieghtz described
their sense
his efforts to
dig into the center of an object to
Like the imagist poets, these photographers attempted a synthesis
of its
intellectual
approach the photographer was not only
and emotional
significance.
With
this synthetic
faithful to objective reahty, but, if his perception
of
the object was intense enough, he
would also reveal a deeper reahty, what Paul Klee
essence that hides behind the fortuitous. "^^ This
photographs made between the
late
is
what Stieghtz was trying
called "the
to capture in his
1910s and the early 1920s, particularly those
made at Lake
George between 1919 and 1922. When Hart Crane, standing before StiegUtz's Apples and Gable,
1922, said, "That
is it.
You've captured life," he meant
that Stieglitz
had succeeded
in repre-
senting not only the "thingitself," but also the universal significance hidden beneath its surface. ^^
Stieghtz used this objective and synthetic approach
[nos.
attempted to synthesize
his
understanding of O'Keeffe with the reahty of the forms in front
of his camera, and through the
face alone; her torso, feet,
and
so he focused his camera
form. Stieghtz noted that

{no. 36),
all
intensity
of his perception of her, he
tried to reveal her intrinsic
beheve that the essence of O'KeefFe was confmed to her head and
quahties. Stieghtz did not
And
when photographing Georgia O'KeefFe
numerous photographs of her made between 1917 and 1937, he
53 through 44). In his
especially her
on each
many of these
hands were
as expressive
of her individuahty.
and studying
part of O'Keeffe's body, isolating
works, such
as the
could be hung either horizontally or vertically: some could even be hung so that
ways were "up." This was a
images were not to be seen
clear statement that these
functional objects in this case as extremities that had a fixed relationship to the
as
its
photograph of O'KeefFe's hands
as
body but
independently expressive forms.

Stieghtz conceived of his portrait of O'KeefFe as a "composite portrait," a series of photo-
graphs taken over
many
years.
Within the composite, Stieghtz beheved
graph could stand alone, and that
it
moment. But, again reflecting the influence of Bergson,

was not
static; like all
ment
these changes
the sole means
Stieghtz also recognized that O'KeefFe
people and things she was in a constant
produce a vahd portrait of her

through a
(or
that each photo-
did reveal the intrinsic nature of O'KeefFe at a particular
state
of change. In order to
anyone, for that matter) Stieghtz beheved he had to docu-
series
by which he could
of photographs of arrested moments.
Serial
imagery was
chronicle both the physical and psychological evolution
of O'KeefFe, the only way he could portray the growth of the essence of O'KeefFe's
many
different "Selves."
There was, however, a fme
line
between
this synthetic
approach and the use of objective
reahty to record symbohcally the subjective thoughts of the

in 1922
over
with
artistic
his
artist.
Stieghtz crossed this line
photographs of clouds. Instead of allowing "objective truth to dominate
personahty," as de Zayas believed he had done in The Steerage, and instead of
trying to reveal universal truths about the objects in front of his camera, Stieghtz used reahty,
the clouds, to express truths about himself, to reveal
edged
that
he began making photographs of clouds
Frank that he "moulded" or

Frank's
as Stieghtz
hked
liis
thoughts and feehngs.
in order to
to interpret
it,
answer
hypnotized his
comment was just the fmal and most obvious impetus for this shift in
Beginning
in the early 1920s Stieghtz increasingly
He acknowlWaldo
charge by
spoke of his desire to "put
sitters.^'
Stieglitz's
But
work.
his feelings into
form," to "channel the impulses" he

rectly."38
And
Way
or The
in such
felt
within
obviously symboHc works
him and
world
di-
(no. 26),
Art Moves, 1920, pointed statements on the position of art in American society,
Stieghtz did give expression to his ideas and feeUngs. For
was
"register the objective
The Last Days of "291," 1917
as
what
Stieglitz
that photography, for him, could not simply be the description
external facts, nor could he only use

vision of hfe," he wrote,
"and
it
means
as a
came
to understand
of forms, the hsting of
to describe the essence
of nature. "I have a
try to find equivalents for it."^'
His photographs of clouds have their roots in symbolism, especially the symbohst
theories
expressed in Camera Notes, but they, and StiegHtz's idea of photography,
quickly developed
beyond
this heritage
and incorporated
his
modem
understanding of the aims of
art.
The
clouds provided Stieghtz with a means of addressing the problem of abstraction

in photog-
many of his generation, Stieghtz beheved that abstract art was a "purer" or
"higher" form of expression than could be achieved in representational, or even
cubist, art.
When the cubist or representational artist worked, he was dependent on the material worid.
As de Zayas explained in the January 1911 issue o( Camera Work, Picasso "receives
raphy. Like so
a direct
impression from external nature, he analyzes ... and translates

result
of the action of matter on the
external world. His art
senses.
But the
abstract artist
was the visuahzation of pure thought;
introducdon of liis 1913 show
at 291,
it
and
it,"
was the
so his art
was not dependent on the
was, as Picabia wrote in the
"the objectivity of a subjectivity"; or
expressed
as
by
Wassily Kandinsky, the outward expression of the inner meaning. Stieghtz, along
with many
of the 291
artists,
had been strongly influenced by Kandinsky's writings and paintings. (He
printed an extract from Kandinsky's Uber das Geistige
Camera Work, only eight months
was
translated into
Enghsh.
for $500 because he
of importance to
hoped
it
in der
was pubhshed
in
Kunst in the July 1912 issue of
Munich and two
to "influence the people to
Around
look
at the picture,
the time of the
state
it
embody
in his
[he]
thought
Stieghtz and his
art (but
not photog-
of mind or feeUng, to project on
to the canvas emotional, temperamental, mental, subjective states."""

that the artist should strive to
which
Armory Show,
de Zayas, Haviland, and Picabia -insisted that
raphy) was the "attempt to render external an internal
Kandinsky
years before
And he bought the only work by Kandinsky in the Armory Show
themselves."'**')
associates -including
after
work
And
they agreed with
the nonmimetic, abstract ex-
pression of emotion that music evoked; that just as the musician used the properties
of sound
and rhythm
to illustrate his feehngs, so too should the artist
to construct abstract, pictorial equivalents of his subjective
came
to
embrace abstraction
as
state.
color, hue,
and photography, to fmd
and
a
his
accomphshment
himself while still respecting the inherent characteristics of photography.
23
more
in the 1920s,
means whereby he could
graphs which were simultaneously abstract and representational.
and form
Like Kandinsky, Stieghtz
"the true medium," the only means of creating a
tual, less materiahstic, art. StiegHtz's challenge,
reconcile abstraction
work with
spiri-
was
to
abstractly express
He did this in photo-
In 1922 Stieglitz titled his photographs of clouds Music:
graphs
{nos.
Sequence of Ten Cloud Photo-
56 and 37), and those from 1923 he called Songs of the Sky
1925 works Equivalents
{nos.
39 through 6y), however,
But
feeling.
{no.
in the
38)^^
He
titled his
sym-
the
shift is significant. In
A Sequence of Ten
boUst idea of correspondence, one object in Music:
clouds stands for an idea or evokes a
and the
Cloud Photographs, the
more modern theory of equivalence,
frequently discussed at 291, an abstract shape or pure color was held to be equivalent to an
abstract thought or sensation.
The photographs themselves
reflect this
change.
The 1922
images are photographs of dramatic, but clearly recognizable, clouds floating above the
of Lake George. The Equivalents are photographs of shapes
which Stieghtz obhterated
no
all
that
references to reahty normally
internal evidence to locate these
works
have ceded
found in a photograph. There
either in time or place.
Alps and, except
have been made
at
any time
since the invention
horizon line in these photographs,

"down."''^
modem look of the
for the
of photography. And because there
way
Our confusion in determining a "top" and a "bottom"
our inabiUty to locate them in either time or
New York City,
gelatin silver prints, they could
not even clear wliich
it is
is
They could have been
taken anywhere nothing indicates whether they were made in Lake George,
Venice, or the
hills
their identity, in
place, forces us to read
is
is
no
"up" and which way
to these photographs,
and
what we know are photo-
graphs of clouds as photographs of abstracted forms. Stieghtz did not photograph the clouds
as pictorial
complements to landscape.
traditional associations
He
them of their
stripped
functional properties and
and transformed them into abstract configurations. Without
in
any
way altering the scene in front of his camera, and without manipulating the process of photography, Stieglitz photographed reahty so
present
as to
it
an abstract construction: these are
as
photographs of clouds, but they are also photographic abstractions.

Stieghtz grouped these photographs of clouds into series
Even though cloud
patterns within the series
with the passage of time. There
is
was taken seconds or minutes
even
hours, days, or years before
ally taken, these series are
whenever he
be similar, the
after Print
it.
1,
Set
Assembled long
{no. 6f),
after the
4,
Museum of Modem
are they
These
series are
Art Photography Collection
By
photographs were actu-
as
both Print
a particular day;
they
1,
\no. 67]
appears
C and
as Print
Set
movement of the
clouds, nor
are, instead, totally artificial
which mirror, not the passage of real time, but the change and
subjective state.
Set
Many of the individual Equivalent
not meteorological records of the
documents of the sky on
structions
or seconds or minutes
prints are repeated in several different series. (For example, Print 3, Set
Set C.)
them.
not sequential groups of stop-action photographs of the sky, nor
did Stieglitz consider any one series a stable or discrete unit.
in the
exliibited
have nothing to do
series
nothing to indicate, for example, the Print 2
64)
{tio.
may
flux
con-
of Stieghtz
placing these photographs into series which defy a hnear, and essentially
photographic, progression of time, and by photographing the clouds not as clouds but as
abstract forms, Stieghtz
was emphatically claiming
24
that these photographs are not recorded
reality.
The
clouds are merely the vehicle for the expression of an idea, abstract constructions,
equivalent to "something aheady taking form within me."''''

In the Equivalents StiegUtz greatly
it
expanded his "idea photography."
solely as an instrument to penetrate the
making images
phenomenon or even
No longer did he see
both abstract and representational, StiegUtz demonstrated
vi^hich are
By
how
the essence of form.
unmanipulated, pure photography could reach die "higher" level of expression

found in
abstract painting.
And he showed
that die photographer
need not be the servant of facts
front of his camera, that he could use those facts, transform
form
to represent his feelings
and
In 1930 StiegUtz began a series
both
new
departure in his
them
ideas.
of photographs of New York City which seem
work and
a reevaluation
of
his idea
art
of the DeStijl painters or the American
expressive and subjective photographs

lents that it
Yet StiegUtz himseU"saw no
York City photographs along with
of his earUer photographs was "mtimately

1930s photographs of New
of the
city,
especiaUy those
by or at any rate,
influenced
graphs of New
York by
pass their predecessors,
differences in his
his redolently
unUke the Equiva-
work.
He
New
exhibited the
York City have
certainly in the
Sheeler, Strand,
as a
whole," to show that "the
spirit"
related to [his] latest work."''^
made from
the Equivalents. Sheeler's paintings of
their roots,
the back
same
of course, in StiegUtz's earUer
window of 291. And
spirit
they are surely
as-the 1920s paintmgs and photo-
and O'Keeffe. But
New
exist in reaUty.
StiegUtz's
photographs also sur-
York, for example, are so
of New York, however, are of a very
real
clean, so precise, that
They possess a higher and purer order so complete
that nothing moves, nothing disturbs their timelessness
and
with
are so
and they do so by incorporating the aspirations and understandings of
one knows they could never
central
68
earUer ones in both 1932 and 1934 specificaUy to estab-
Ush "the continuity and underlying idea of the work
The
{nos.
more in common
seems StiegUtz had completely abandoned the possibiUty of subjective

expression
in photography.
studies
precisionists than
which preceded them. They
to signal
of photography
through 73). Coolly rational and objective, diese photographs appear to have
with the
in
into an abstract language of
world
in
and
stiUness. StiegUtz's
photographs
which time and the passage of time are
crucial elements.
These photographs of
windows of either
his last
New
York appear remarkably
gaUery,
An American
similar.
Photographing from the
Place, or his vraiter
home
at the
Shelton
Hotel, StiegUtz placed his camera in ahnost exactly the same location and
recorded the same
buildings at diiferent times of the day or year.
changes in time. Yet, in

insistent, reference to the
York
At
first,
many of the photographs
only the clouds and shadows indicate
there
is
an even more precise, subtle, but
passage of time. For the vast majority of these photographs of
New
of buildings under construction, and when StiegUtz exhibited them he

grouped them into sequences which quite Uterally document the growth and construction
in the 1930s are
that transformed
New York
in the early years
25
of the Depression. (See
nos.
68 and 6g.Y^
sequencing of these photographs indicates that they are not just abstract or
Stieglitz's
formal studies of the hermetic world depicted in Sheeler's paintings. But neither are they only
charts of the architectural
New York. Stieglitz recognized that imphcit in the

New York was a conflict, a tension, and an opposition of forces.
growth of
constantly changing face of
A sense of conflict, or confrontation between man, nature, and the city had been an important
element in his photographs of New York at the turn of the century. Although more subtly
stated,
present in the 1930s photographs, in
it is still
skyscrapers seems
are
immaculate
who
is
at
odds with
their relentless
The presence of change unites

portrait
and the
Equivalents.
documented her physical

series
merge
in the
The
sky he
httle relationship to
man,
inliabitant.
the 1930s photographs of
changes in a
series
New York with both the.O'Keeffe
of photographs of O'Keeffe, Stieghtz
By
well as psychological evolution.
of photographs of clouds he
tween natural forces the
flict.
as
By
nor
of the
striking formal beauty
photographs they have
structures, but in Stieghtz's
visible neither as their builder
which the
growth, heedless of humanity. The skyscrapers
variations in images in a
of his emotions.
illustrated the flux
And by
conflicts
be-
of hght and dark tones, shapes of clouds that coUide and
contrasts
created an abstract equivalent of emotional tension and spiritual con-
photographs of New York are not the blatantly subjective expressions which
later
the Equivalents are, but neither are they dispassionately formal.
While they are representational
images, they do not abandon the idea that photography could
embody subjective expression.
By contrasting
the beauty of the skyscrapers with their unremitting growth, Stieghtz
the buildings
symbohc not only of the continuous change of New York, but of change
as a principle
of all being.
These photographs of New York are

personal
life
in the 1930s.
also
symbohc of the
The economic and
Stieghtz, mirrored in the upheavals
disruption Stieghtz
social upheavals
made
itself
felt in his
of the Depression were, for
of his private hfe in 1929 O'Keeffe began to spend most
New Mexico. "My photographs are a picture of the chaos in the world,"
"and of my relationship to that chaos. My prints show the world's conthis
time,
said
at
he
of her summers in
stant upsetting
of man's equihbrium, and
his eternal battle to reestabhsh
"''''
it.
Whether
in his
photographs of New York or of Lake George, Stieghtz's works from the 1930s are of order
imposed on chaos. In much the same way
as
he regularized the confusion of
architectural explosion, in photographs such as
1933?
(no. 52),
he imposed a visual
clarity
Hedge and
Grasses, 1933, or
and logic on the complex
clutter
New
York's
Little
House,
The
of the landscape
of Lake George."*^
From
raphy
the mid-i88os to 1937, the date of liis
as a process
rooted in external
last
photograph, Stieghtz regarded photog-
reality. Scattered
throughout
of his fervent wish to be able to record exactly what he saw:

is
to reproduce
this desire
what
see" (1892);
"Could
his writings are expressions
"My sole aim in making pictures
but photograph what /5fc!"
remained constant, by the 1920s and 1930s
26
Stieglitz
(1924).'''^
increasingly saw
Although
in the city-
scape of
New York or the landscape of Lake George a means to represent his "vision of life"
he was,
as
O'KeefFe has written, "always photographing himself."^
clarity to these later
reflection
of the
possibly even a
of the
idea
And
there
a greater
is
photographs, especially those from the 1930s, which, while perhaps a
purist
and
precisionist aesthetics
symbol for- the
greater lucidity
of the age,
may
be an indication
also
of
of StiegHtz's understanding of "the meaning
photography."
He
Stieghtz had a reputation as a talker.

forth for hours at a time deUvering
bered: "Stieghtz
made
gleefully admitted that
he could, and did, hold
monologues on any and every subject. De Zayas remem-
soUIoquies which his friends,
who
sensed
what he meant and did not
Hsten to what he said, accepted as the utterances of an 'illuminated,' the unbehevers as the
outbursts of a 'charlatan,' and the practical ones as the twaddle of a 'perfect bore.' "^^
of his
stories
and parables his preferred method of instruction were recorded by
They and Stieghtz himself
lowers and have been perpetuated in countless reminiscences.^-
have suffered from
their repetition: to the
modem reader,
Many
his fol-
the parables
seem a
bit dated,
and
the stories, because they were recorded years after the events they describe, are sometimes
misleading.
It is
not necessary, however, to rely on recorded
stories
and parables for our understanding
of Stieghtz's idea of photography, for he was a prohfic writer.

mostly before 191 1.^^ Even
260
articles in his lifetime,
the
power of the printed word, using
international reputation.
editor o( Camera Notes and later
own
articles,
as a
means
to estabhsh
On his return to the United States in
effective vehicles for explaining
however,
it first
and promoting the
1890
aesthetics
of
Germany he recognized
and
it
later to
enhance
his
became one of his most
pictorial
photography. As
Camera Work, he no longer needed to pubHsh so many of his
for he could speak through those he pubhshed.
if he felt
He wrote and pubhshed over
as a student in
the standards of either
liis
He
did not
fail
to raise his pen,
periodicals or the Photo-Secession
were under
attack.
After the Albright Art Gallery exhibition in 1910, which effectively

the Photo-Secession, StiegHtz's career as a pubhshed writer declined.
marked the end of
He
did not, however,
give up writing entirely, but channeled the time and energy which had previously gone into
his articles into his
lific
writer, but
voluminous correspondence. (Even before 1911 Stieghtz had been a pro-
few of these
letters
have survived.)
He continued
to be an active correspon-
dent throughout the 1920s and well into the 1930s, occasionally writing
four
letters in
These
as
many
as
twenty-
one day.
letters,
for the
most
part, are
not carefully composed or constructed, but spon-
taneous, unguarded, and frequently quite passionate.
27
They were
in effect his diary.
From
the
tiine
he was a young child to
his
marriage in 1893, StiegUtz kept a diary in which he noted in
great detail not only the activities of his Ufe, but also the people he met, their conversations,
and even the weather.
He
ing daily persisted. His

his daily life;
man emerges from
on
art
and photography. Thus
modern
at
Lake George,
a different side
his
of the
the one seen in either the accounts of his parables or in his pubhshed
In his correspondence Stieglitz speaks directly and forcefully.
while he would not hesitate to lambaste an unsuspecting subscriber

sion of
the habit of writ-
both the momentous and inconsequential events of
they record the comings and goings of family and friends
conversations, as well as his observations
articles.
when he first married but
destroyed these diaries
letters chronicle
art in
Camera Work,
his letters reveal
him
And,
man who was
as a
for example,
who questioned the inclunot above
self-
criticism or even, occasionally, self-doubt.
StiegUtz had a distinct epistolary
would enlarge or modify with
st^'le.
He
wrote
adjectival phrases or
in short, concise sentences
which he
even single words. These phrases, or
words, were usually separated from the main sentence by dashes. StiegUtz rarely used commas, and instead of periods, he frequently used dashes. True to his
German
he also
heritage,
frequently capitalized nouns to signal their importance.
The
those
reader will note
some
from the 1920s through
secretary for 291,
styUstic differences
and he dictated many
Utz's letters, thus saving
between the
letters
the 1940s. In 1912 StiegUtz hired
many from
letters to her.
(She also
written in the 1910s and
Marie Rapp (Boursault)
made carbon
as a
copies of Stieg-
obUvion.) Because they were dictated, these
letters lack
StiegUtz's characteristic pimctuation.
The foUowing
not address
all
selection
aspects
of articles and
letters
cannot claim to be comprehensive;
of StiegUtz's accompUshments or significance to American
it
art
photography. Rather the examples presented here, arranged in chronological order,
does
and
reflect
the grovrth and evolution of "the idea photography," and StiegUtz's continuing dialogue
with
it.
As evidenced by the great influence StiegUtz exerted over American photography
both during and after
his Ufetime,
it
was not an
idle or inconsequential dialogue.
Sarah Greenough
28
Notes
Articles reprinted
"Alfred
volume
in this
in the section
torial
Stieglitz on Photography " are cited as " Stieghtz
on Photography," with entry numbers immediately

12.
following. Photographs included in the exhibition
ALFRED STIEGLITZ, but not reproduced

cited as "exh.,
Photography," Camera Notes 4 (April 1901),
263 and 265.
Contemporary critics recognized these differences
between
here, are
Stieglitz's
followed by their exhibition numbers.
As quoted by Charles H.
17 [20 February 1904], 147.)
the "mysterious and bizarre"
Dover
Stieglitz Collection: Fifty Pioneers

cat..
litz
kichi
Alfred
Press, 1978);
William
Homer,
I.
Graphic Society, 1977); or
New
glyphics of a
109.)
Hartmaim concluded
that
rapher in
13.
Speech (Princeton: Princeton Uni-
all
his
work."
From
My
Windoif-New York
duced in Norman,
3.
"Stieghtz
on Photography,"
56.
4.
"Stieghtz
on Photography,"
15.
5.
As quoted by Dorothy Norman,

American Seer
(New York:
"Two Artists'
("Stieghtz
in
his intention
traits,
Alfred Stieglitz:
Hotel and
1) Stieglitz
wrote that
was not "to make [photographic] por-
7.
The Rag Picker (exh. 24)
in
Norman,
from the
9.
10.
Dreiser,
Dreiser,
Round World 19
"A Remarkable
(3
"A Remarkable
May
litz,
1902), 434.
16.
E.
both the Shelton
reproduced in Norman,
Flat Iron, described this build-
his
photograph of
still
in the
Stieglitz, 45.
York (exh. 40) are reproduced in

plates
XXIV and
it
making."
The City of Ambition (exh. 38) and Old and
New
Norman,
Stieg-
(exh. 41)
is
xviii.
Outward Bound, The Mauretania

Stieglitz, plate
famous description of his excitement
xix.
in
re-
Stieglitz's
making The
Steerage how he "saw shapes related to each other
Theory (Amsterdam: Swets and
of shapes" was recounted
in 1942,
long
1.
after the
11.
at
who at one point wanted
both the building and
... a picture
Zeitlinger, 1972),
this
point of view
monster ocean steamer," and he
produced in Norman,
Art," 434.
Quoted by H. R. Rookmaaker, Gauguin and Nine-
teenth Century Art
bow of a
As quoted by Norman,
New
As quoted by Theodore
3 1) is
Stieglitz,
were "a picture of new America
Stieglitz, plate xiii.
8.
windows
his ashes flung
ing as "the
20.
is
his
VIL
15.
Art," The Great
from
Stieglitz, plate
but to make pictures." Gossip- Katwyk (exh.
and The Net-Mender are reproduced

and
repro-
of
An American Place.
The Flat-iron (exh.
14.
Stieglitz, illustrations 21
Stieglitz's
is
title
Aperture, 1973), 28.
said that
17)
The
how things are seen, predicts his photographs of the
Haunts," with Louis H. Schubart
on Photography,"
(exh. 32)
Stieglitz, plate vi.
when making the image and thus indicates his interest

1930s taken
In
Stieglitz
of pictorial photog-
Bram Dijkstra, The Hiero-
photograph, which notes
6.
even though
raphy, "strange to say he remained a straight photog-
New York
versity Press, 1969).
An
work of the Photo-Se-
who "suppress all outlines and details." (SadaHartmaim, "A Plea for Straight Photography,"
"reflects all the different phases"
Alfred Stieg-
and the American Avant-Garde (Boston:
praised for his
American Amateur Photographer 16 [March 1904], 101-
of Photography [exh.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art] (New York:
Viking
He was
cession
New York:
Weston Naef, The
Publications, 1978);
(See, for
36.
Robert Doty, Photo-Secession:
Photography as a Fine Art (i960; reprint ed..
more im-
images of the Photo-Secession.
"straightforward depictions," which were a rehef from
York: Morgan and Morgan, 1971),
See, for example,
2.
of other members
example, J. T. Keiley, "Alfred Stieghtz," Photography
CaiTin, Photography as
a Fine Art (1901; reprint ed., Hastings-on-Hudson,
New
that
images were frequently
his
described as "realistic" in comparison to the

pressionistic
1.
work and
of the Photo-Secession;
photograph was made. ("Alfred
Stieglitz:
Four Happenings," Twice A Yifarno. 8-9 [Fall- Win-
O. Beck, "Newark (Ohio) Exhibition of Pic-
29
"
ter 1942], 131.) It
unclear exactly
is
what
thought of tliis photograph when he made

not exhibit
pictorial
show
it
In the
Dresden
at
same 1942 account
it
well to
to
was made, but

it.
anyone
iland.
in 1909,
Stieglitz said that
Utz himselfsa
nor did he
"there
he showed
that Keiley did not
Thereafter, he said, he hesitated to

until 1910,
when he showed it
of
Stieglitz's proofs.
New
[Garden City,
overturn sexual and social and economic conditions
to Paul
Hav-
Letter," Chicago Evening Post, 22
of The
Steerage
somewhat more
he would not have exhibited
stylistic similarity
it.
year in which he
it
it
34-35 (April-July 1911),
first
it
1907
in
its
on Photography," n.
graphs and Cubist Painting,"
unlikely
it is
Stieglitz, plate
18. Steichen,
is
in
Stieglitz, "First
New
Stieglitz
it; it
New
was the
result
this article,
he did
of an interview he gave
York American. Beginning in 1908, several
Camera Work suggested
that the aims
of
example, Edward Steichen, "Painting and Photography," Camera
Amer-
H.
Book and Manuscript
Library, Yale University. Hereafter cited as
"Our Illustrations," Camera Workno.
in Painting
article, attributed to
Sadakichi Hartmarm, "Unphotographic Paint:-The
Texture of Impressionism," Camera Work no. 28 (October 1909), 20-23.
! '
24. Stieglitz,
32 (October
Art,' "
pression of
13. Stieglitz, in seek-
"The
and Picabia,
1910), 47-
on Photography,"
no.23 (July 1908), 3-5;Charles
23-26; or the unsigned
1908),
1922), 10, Stieghtz recounted how Weber was constantly praising Cezanne: "He would suddenly stop
on thestreets of New York and exclaim, 'cet homme
Hôr;^
"The Camera Point of View
Caffin,
and Photography," Camera Work no. 24 (October
ycal. In
1910-1921," Manuscripts no. 2 (March
20. "Stieglitz
author of
listed as the
is
articles in
unpublished type-
Stieglitz,
ican Literature, Beinecke Rare
19.
"
painting and photography were different. See, for
script, Alfred Stieglitz Archive, Collection of
"Portrait:
Great 'Chnic to Revitalize Art,'
York American, 26 January 1913, 5-CE. Although
not write
significance.
New York Stm, reprinted
Camera Work, nos. 42-43 (April-July 1913), 46;
and
and Stieghtz's
XV.
A Life, n.p.
quoted by Samuel Swift, "Art Photo-
23. Picabia, as
appears that that was the
understood
Night (exh. 27)
10, Stieglitz to
October 1912, ycal, and "Stieg-
n.p.)
simply because Keiley
Steerage
plausible
to the
17. Icy
66.
on Photography," 9 and
John Galsworthy,
Moreover, because of the
between The
photographs from 1910,
1911, in
Marius de Zayas, "Pablo Picasso," Camera Work
21.
nos.
recognized the importance
when he made
did not think highly of
December
Scrapbooks, ycal).
Life in Photography
{A
York: Doubleday, 1963],
Stieglitz's. If Stieglitz
all
work through and
and leave the world of art untouched." ("New York
it
litz
than
working through
is
revolution can't
while looking through
it
Steichen's account seems
of revolution
show
22. "Stieglitz
several
that
respond
event somewhat differently; he said
that de Zayas discovered
And
the world.
ing to Stieglitz, "truly saw" the picture. Steichen rethis
Baldwin Macy
an actual revolution going on in painting,
is
just as the spirit
Max Weber, and Marius de Zayas who, accord-
membered
w his investigation ofart and photography
in this larger context: he told
T. Keiley shortly
J.
Henry May, The End ofAmerican
Innocence [Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1964].) Stieg-
did
Albright Art Gallery exhibition in 1910.
at the
the photograph to his colleague

after
He
and important exhibition of
at the large
it
photography
sion ofthis subject, see
Stieglitz
it.
1913, part
First
as
Great 'Clinic to Revitahze
quoted
New York," New
in
"A Post Cubist's Im-
York Tribune, 9 March
2, p. 1.
ing the "fundamental idea of photography," was very
much a part of his time. The

World War were an era of deep
25.
years before the First
tic
no. 41 (January 1913), 17.
probing, drama-
innovation, and drastic upheaval not only in the
arts,
but also in science, technology,
ucation.
As
Stieglitz questioned
politics,
26.
and ed-
istics,
so too did
literature, art,
its
drama
Zayas, "Photography and Artistic PhotograHôrfc nos.
42-43 (April-July
1913). 13-
and explored pho-
many Americans
music, and
De
phy," Camera
27.
tography in order to determine
Marius dc Zayas, "Photography," Camera Work
De
Zayas, "Photography and Artistic Photogra-
inherent charactercritically
phy,"
examine
in order to under-
28.
14.
De
Zayas, [untitled], 291 nos. 7-8 (September-
October 1915),
stand their "fundamental ideas." (For further discus-
30
1.
29.
(New Haven: Yale University Library, 1966), 60, and

Photography a Failure?," The New York
Scallen in Cuhism
John Pultz and Catherine B.
and American Photography, igio-1930 [exh.
Stieglitz, "Is
Ster-
cat.,
hng and Francine Clark Art Institute] (Williamstown,

Massachusetts, 1981), 20, state that Stieghtz "must
articles
by de Zayas. The
evidence, however, seems to indicate otherwise:
from
Stieglitz's letters
in
all
He wrote
complete agreement with de Zayas.
40. Stieghtz to Kandinsky, 26

also "Stieglitz
to
importance.
sider
it
realize
its
how
exactly
Munich
con-
1912.
one of the blossoms of the seed sown by me."
It is
immigrated to the United
gave
it
By
time.
the mid-i9ios he
cerned with
labels, as such,
"Art or not
art[.]
That
is
and would write
41. Picabia, as paraphrased
pho-
"A
tography[.]" Second Exhibition of Photography by Alfred Stieglitz [exh.
(New York,
cat.,
(New York:
Child Bayley, 15 April 1913, ycal,
sily
"A
(New York,
32.
From
the
Statement," Exhibition of Stieglitz

cat.,
these artists, see de Zayas
Anderson Galleries,
42. Stieglitz
New York]
291, 1913), and Sandra G. Levin,
diss.,
wrote to Paul Rosenfeld on 6 September
is
Back-Window-"29l" -Buildings
reproduced
cat..
in
title
Music of the
Spheres instead o{ Songs of the Sky. And, although he

in
most frequently used the
Snow
Ten Cloud Photographs,

(exh. 45)
Doris Bry, Alfred
Museum
title
Music:
Sequence of
Stieglitz also titled this series
Stieglitz:
Clouds
in
Ten Movements. Both of these alternative
of Fine Arts] (Bostitles,
as
well as the one he chose, reflect Stieglitz's
ton, 1965), plate 12.

desire to create visual music. (See "Stieglitz
33.
"Was-
Rutgers University, 1976).
1924 that he considered using the
1921), n.p.
Photographer [exh.
and
Kandinsky and the American Avant-Garde, 1912-
1950," (Ph.D.
31. Stieglitz,
on
Haviland, The Modern Evolution of Plastic Expression
YCAL.
Photographs [exh.
by Hutchins Hapgood,
Camera Work nos. 42-43
Paris Painter," reprint.
dinsky's influence
Frank R. Fraprie, 10 December 1915,
to
1910 and
in
(April -July 1913), 50. For further evidence of Kan-
Anderson Galleries, New York]
1923), n.p.
30. Stieglitz to R.
and Stieghtz
States late in 1911,
Munich
in
was dated
it
Konrad Cramer,
in 1923,
is
known
191 1 where he knew and was influenced by Kandinsky.
was not con-
immaterial[.] There
Cramer hved
to him.
not
It is
1911, although
possible that the painter
who
litz at this
14.
Kunst which was published in
in der
de Zayas pronounced pho-
fact that
38.
ycal. See
1913,
obtained a copy of Kandinsky's
December
in
May
tography "not art" would not have disturbed Stieg-
Moreover, the
of stat-
a picture
is
on Photography,"
on Photography,"
Stieglitz
Vher das Geistige
on Photog-
article
raphy and whether you
(exh. 102)
"Stieglitz
of
R. Child Bayley, 15 April 1913, ycal, "I wonder
what you thought of de Zayas'
wooden cart.
ues in a
time indicate that he was
this
1922, 20.
Way Art Moves
The
39.
have disagreed" with these
March
Sun, 14
Helen Freeman (exh. 66) and Dorothy True (exh.
on Pho-
tography," 35.)
64) are reproduced in Bry, Stieglitz, plates 31 and 29.

43. Stieglitz occasionally teased this sense
34.
Edward Weston, Daybooks: Mexico
New
York: Aperture, 1973),
Photography,"
and
55,
(Millerton,
tion experienced
by
the viewer
on
a lull or the top
of
a tree in the
"Stieglitz
comer of
31.
35. Paul Klee, "Creative
of disloca-
by placing
the line of
upper right or
left
mounted photograph. Rosalind Krauss
in her essay, "Stieglitz/ Equivalents," October no. 11
Credo," quoted by Will
(Winter 1 979)
Grohmann, Paul Klee (New York: Harry N. Abrams,
1 29
- 1 40, attributes
this sense
of disori-
entation to the "incredible verticality of these clouds

1954). 99as
36. Apples and Gable

litz,
plate XLVii.
Weber,
Stieglitz
is
reproduced in Norman, Stieg-
Hart Crane,
"Stieglitz:
Memorial
as
recoimted by
An Emotional
Portfolio,
(New York: Twice A Year
ed.
they
"Stieglitz
Brom
38.
Herbert
J.
44.
exactly
35.
Seligmann, Alfred
the image," saying they
almost to the point of vertigo" (135).
Dorothy Norman
Press, 1947), 48.
on Photography,"
upward along
Experience," in
series
37.
rise
create "an extraordinary sense of disorientation
Stieglitz
fied
when
Stieglitz
of Equivalents; however,
by
letters
31
as
and not numbers,
were arranged
Talking
Stieglitz, 161. It
in the
is
formed the National
middle or
they are
it is
late
most
imclear
Gallery's
all
identi-
likely they
1930s or even the
Throughout
early 1940s.
the 1920s
1930s Stieglitz used numbers to
example. Equivalents,
and into the early
title
was exhibited
Series 727
Hedge and Grasses (exh. 123)
48.
Norman,
the series: for
An
at
49.
American Place
in 1932. In
1934 he exhibited groups
of cloud photographs with the
title
Eqtiiualenls
through
his
1892), 428,
by
Equivalents distributed
death are
XX or
letters [Series
example). Significantly, almost
Set
of the
by O'KeefFe
with
series titled
all
1924,
W,
series
50.
for
when
1932
them
at
An
My
52.
My
Shelton, North.
five
was completed,
8-9
Year: no. 1 (1938), nos.
(1942), nos.
14-15 (1946-1947). Although they were published
not the author. Rather, these
Norman's
More-
transcriptions
articles are
Dorothy
of her conversations with
Stieghtz.
for of the sixry-
53.
Stieglitz
wrote many more articles some ofcon-
siderable interest than could be incorporated into

this selection.
can be grouped into
writings see Sarah Greenough,
depicting the construction
of buildings.
5-6 (1940-
10-11 (1943), and nos.
in the National Gallery's collection, over two-thirds
47.
The
w^th StiegUtz's knowledge and permission, he was
Win-
photographs of New York City from the 1930s
series
Georgia
cat.,
Many of Stieglitz's stories and parables were pub-
1941), nos.
over, Stieglitz apparently lost interest in these views

after the construction
"Introduction,"
by Alfred Stieglitz [exh.
Museum of Art] (New York: Viking
lished in Twice
into distinct units: for ex-
Window at The
O'KeefFe,
A Portrait
115.
American Place, North, and seven photo-
graphs From
Rebecca Strand, 11 June
51. De Zayas, "How, When, and Why Modem Art

Came to New York," Arts Magazine 54 (April 1980),
cat..
ample, he showed nine photographs From
dow
Stieglitz to
Press, 1978), n.p.
Stieghtz exhibited these photo-
graphs, he grouped
Georgia
Metropolitan
after Stieglitz's
An American Place]
(New York, 1932), n.p., and Alfred Stieglitz: An Exhibition of Photographs [exh. cat., An American Place]
(New York, 1934-1935), n.p.
46. In
and
YCAL.
O'Keeffe:
of
letters.
by Alfred Stieghtz [exh.
Am-
into
45. Stieglitz [introduction], 127 Photographs {1892ig;}2)
reproduced in
As quoted by Clarence B. Moore, "Leading
A, B,
cloud photographs grouping them
is
lxxiii.
ateurs in Photography," Cosmopolitan 12 (February
C. At some later point, Stieglitz apparently went
series identified
Stieglitz, plate
For an account of
Stieglitz's
published
"The Published Writ-
ings of Alfred Stieglitz," (Master's thesis. University
of New Mexico, 1976).
Stieglitz, 161.
32
PLATES
1.
At
Biarritz, li
!*.fiH'i|
2.
Sunlight Effect, Gutach, 1894
J.
Enrly Morn, 1894
4.
Venetian Gamin, 1894
llalioii
Mnsoii, Bellngio, 18S7
6.
Gtitach Peasant Girl, 1894
^^Bi
1
w
11
F7
>v
^^^^^^^^^^H
.-
BIfe
"M
;l
Tyrol, 1890
Street in Sterzin^, the
8.
Suit Rnys, Paula, li
g.
Street in Belln'îo, 1894
10.
(The Subway
EtUraiicel, 1896?
II.
The
Street Paver, 1893
iLiy
^9llk^
Bf""^^^^
''
-_
ii^^--^
J 2.
Winter, Fifth Avenue, 1893
jj.
Spritig Showers, 1901
''^n^s
/M,.
j\\
1
1
1
^
i.>
ll
l||
{
^,
llll
The Savoy Hold,
New
York,
it
J5.
The Hand of Man, 1902
i6.
The City
across the River, 1910
17.
[The Ferry
Boat], 1910?
t8.
The
Steerage, 1907
Fro,,, the
Back-Wmdow, "291,"
,9'6
Bildis i CcstruCio,,,
,.
From
the
Back-Wmdow,"29iri9'5-i9'6
21.
From
the Bnck-lViiidow,
"291," 19>5
22.
Self-portrait, 1907
2j.
"291"
Picasso-Braque Exhibition, 1915
24
Marsdcit Hartley, i9i5-'9'^
2y Mark Rnpp,
1916
26.
The Last Days of "291," 'Qi?
2T.
Arthur G. Dove, 1911-1912
z8.
Charles Detmth, 1915
29.
Georjîa
O'KeeffeJwie
4,
1917
igi;
JO. i-W(;f Kinwii,
5J.
John Marin,
192
j2. Marcel
Duchawp, 1923
33-
Sherwood
Aiidersoti, 1923
j^.
I'nmcis I'icnhin, 1915
1918
j5. Georgia O'Kecffe,
192'
j6. Georiîa O'Keeffe,
1920?
j7. Georgia O'Keeffe,
19'S
jS. Georfîn O'Keeffc,
39. Gcorijirt O'Kceffe, 1919
40.
Cc'Olêlrt
O'Keeffc, tgig
41. Georgia O'Keeffe, 1920?
42.
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1921?
4i.
Ccortiia ()'Kcci\ iQi^
44-
Georgia O'Keeffc, 1921?
44-
Georgia O'Kceffe, 1921:
^^H^BB^
4S.
Shadows on
the Lnhc, igi6
^6.
Rebecca Stmid, igzz-igz)
47-
Margaret Treadwell, 1921
48.
Paul Strand, igig
4g.
Waldo Frank, 1920
JO. Georgia Engelhard, 1922
3i.
Dnuciiij^ Trees, 1922
52. Little
House, 1933?
jj.
First
Snow ami
the Liitlc
House,
n)2_i
>
,:
1
'iÛ.^*>v
'V
1,1,
V-..;
34-
Spiritiml America, 1923
_^5.
Tree Set B, iQ.iO?
S6. Music:
Sequence of Ten Cloud Photographs, No.
/,
1922
.57.
Music:
No. VIII, 1922

Sequence of Ten Cloud Photo,^raphs,
^8.
Son^s of the Sky, 1924?
sp.
Iu]tiiriilcnt<,
1927
6o.
Ecjuivdiciit, 1929?
6i.
Equii'olciit, Series
XX,
No.
7,
'929
62.
Equivalent, igji
63- through 67.
Equivalent, Set
W,
Nos.
through 5, 1929
From
All Amcricnii Place, Southwest, 1932
eg.
Prom An Anwriaw
Place, Southwest, 1933?
I!,|IMII
III
i: A,-
\^,^'i
'
JO.
From An Aiiwricon
Phicc, North],
mi'
//.
From
My
Window
at
An
American Place, North, igji
J2.
From
My Window
at the Slwltoii,
Weil, 193>
75.
1-rom the Sheltoii, West, 1935
ALFRED STIEGLITZ
ON PHOTOGRAPHY
dominant concern indeed,
Stieglitz's
was to
establish
photography
as a
campaign to prove
to be an extremely effective tool in his
medium
ible
responsive to the controls of the
over two hundred
articles:
goal between 1887 and 1911
his professed
vaUd form of artistic expression. He found the printed word
artist.
ranging from technical
that
photography could be a
flex-
Between 1887 and 1911 he pubUshed

or accounts of his photographic
treatises
expeditions to exhibition reviews or lengthy discussions of the history of pictorial photog-
raphy, these pieces are united by his faith in the expressive potential of photography. Through-
out the 1890s they are also characterized by an optimistic beUef in the amateur photographer.
StiegUtz reasoned that if the average
halls
and photographic
tenets
of
word
to the wise
sioned
by
sufficient."
is
The
of StiegUtz's constant
1900s saw a change in
came
the response to his instruction, StiegUtz
rapher, mired in a conservative and phiHstine spirit,
sympathetic with his ideas, and,
demonstrate photography
as
more
an
art.
to
articles
he could not master, the
refrains
from
this attitude,
tliis
time was "a
however. Disillu-
beHeve that the amateur photog-
With
the formation of the Photo-
from the average worker
importantly, to those
His
if
was incapable of comprehending the
aims and aspirations of the advanced pictorial workers.

Secession in 1902, StiegUtz turned his attention
both exhibition
sufficient instruction in
he could understand, even
One
photography.
pictorial
worker was given
periodicals,
more
to those
whose work would conclusively
from 1902 through 1910
(the date
of the
Albright Art GaUery exhibition) no longer address the concerns of the average photographer,
but
1.
are, instead, explanations
"Two
It
Artists'
and defenses of the aims and actions of the Photo-Secession.
Haunts," with Louis H. Schuhart,
were an herculean
task for the artist or
vast planet so aUke in the great
what they
photographic times,
photographer to find two other places on
amount of material
offer than the lovely southern
January 1895.
this
yet so absolutely different in the nature of
mountain
village,
Gutach and the cold Dutch sand-
dunes of Katwyk.
The Black
conjure with.
Forest and Holland, Gutach and

.
possess almost the
so closely that
one
Katwyk.
Two names for the camera-artist to
Unlike our cosmopoUtan America, where the people of every section
same general
is
characteristics,
wear the same
often in doubt whether a person
is
dress
and resemble each other
from the East or has
thousand miles to the West. The inhabitants of each kingdom, each
Europe are
characteristic
of their birthplace, so much so that
for the traveler to correctly connect a
have
their
man and
his country.
it
requires but
The
his
home
three
Uttle principaUty in
little
inliabitants
experience
of each section
own dialea, their own idioms, and, what is more important to the photograplicr,
own costume and physique. The people of the Schwarzwald arc small from long years
their
178
of ploughing and harvesting. Their

protection their pleasant
a glance
tells at
she
of his
battles
of spring and summer and the
faces reflect the sunshine
homes grant them
our
in the winter; while
tall
Katwyk fisherman
with wave and wind. In Gutach, Nature smiles; in Katwyk,
forbidding and pessimistic.
is
The
of the Black Forest are told
stories
in fairy tales; those
of the North
in epic
poems and
stem dramas.
Gutach Hes
woods
in the
make
wliich
very heart of the famous Schwarzwald or Black Forest, the lovely
the
Duchy of Baden famous, and
of the simshine and the odor of the pines into

natures, ever willing to
prompts the willing
entering into the spirit of the
assist,
spirits to
famous town and the
fact that
long hours of posing. The

it lies
excursionists explains the simphcity

itself offers
far off the
Alps in the distance, beautiful
their
modem
smoky locomotives
new and
making them
artist,
many
cheerful simple
and the smallest gratuity

artists
who
frequent
tliis
beaten track of globe trotters and svmimer
and readiness to obhge of these simple people. The town
every possible variety of subject. Mountains, even the snow-clad ones of the
vistas in the pine
woods, farming scenes, for these people are
distinctly agricultural, everything that the artist
with
the inhabitants have taken something
their souls,
could
rectangular lines of bricks and

to
dim
desire,
windows
the pure atmosphere, and
all
and no
factory buildings
tall
to disturb,
no
railroads
with
these ever changing, presenting a
varying view at every turn, changing with each season of the year, with every
change from lowering storm to noble inspiring sunshine. Trees, flowers, wheat-fields, mountains
and
valleys, rushing streams
variety, willing
models in
and babbling brooks, a waterfall here and there to add
their quaint caps
and mediaeval costumes, what more can the
or photographer desire than unlimited time and an inexhaustible supply of plates and
artist
lenses
Katvi^k presents an entirely

but differing
less beautiful,
have
said
different side
as the
of nature, not
whit
less interesting,
not a whit
night from the day, as the north from the south. All that
of the simphcity of the inhabitants of Gutach and
remains true here, and for the same reasons.
An hour
their willingness to act as
distant
from Amsterdam,
models,
the spires
of
the Casino at Scheveningen within sight, yet as far off as if hundreds of miles separated
Katwyk from
the capital city of Holland and
its
most famous watering
place.
As Gutach Hves
off its land Katw^yk hves off the ocean. Fishermen and their boats, and the houses built to
resist
the rude storms, are the themes here
are like the phase
behef, stoical
on which artists frame
of nature that surrounds them. Immense
from long
habit, seeing brodier, father, son
fishing trips far out in the
North
Sea, not
their
and husband leave on
knowing when or whether
welcoming them with a simple handshake, no embrace, no tender

for hero he
risks
and
is.
all its
The home coming

uncertainties.
The
is
poems, and the people
in stature, hardy, brave
at all
beyond
their perilous
they will return,
kiss for the returning
saddened by the shadow of the next departure with
hero
all its
boats which these hardy fishermen use look as if they could
179
weather any storm and outlive any of

for
them and
the beach
their masters, yet ten years
is
considered a long
strewn with what were but a few years ago staunch
is
vessels,
life
bmlt
of hardest oak, and ribbed with knots and sinews of steel.
The way
novelties
on
these boats are landed
their return
is
not the
least interesting
ful eyes scan the sea.
We observed one man for two long days with spyglass to his eye, stand-
ing motionless, trying to pick out on the horizon one particular
weary
many
of the
which Katwyk presents to the observer. The strand is constantly patroled and watch-
vigil
meant
no change of expression
to him, but
watcher withdrew to
his
home no
surf, far
out
till
Who knows what that

A sail came in sight, the
no expression of rehef that watch was
smile,
no doubt, one of many. The boats approach;

through the
sail.
told the tale.
high
it is
tide;
brave
men on
to him,
horseback rush
only the head of the horse remains out of water. The rider
warp
returns with the anchor-rope; he plants the anchor deep in the sand; then strong arms
the boat as high up
men
and
fish,
on
the beach as they can, the tide recedes, and our vessel, with
hes high and dry.
day, one unending monotony.
but the
men in one
The dunes He
on
group, the
The next
village
Katwyk, and
and
that to
it is
which made our work somewhat

have
their portraits taken
is
first
cUck of the shutter they started to
their feet,
not
the rents. There
visible. It is
difficult at first.
women
one pecu-
is
superstition
to sell their souls to the Evil
group of women and children seated on the sands gave promise of some
the
is
a remarkable sight to see the
work mending
outlined against the horizon bending over their
among them
after
fleet,
fi:om the land side the ocean
these dunes that the nets are spread to dry,
exists
and she leaves again. So day
women in another always separate, always serious and silent.
quite high at
harity about these people
is
load of
out of doors to greet the coming
tide floats her
The whole
its
One.
fine pictures,
and with pale and frightened
but at
faces left
the spot. After that every time they saw us with our cameras they eyed us with suspicion.
They
willingly, in fact they
was only
seem to enjoy posing for the
after a firiendly artist explained to
but to make pictures (even though

to use
we
them
that
painters
who
we were not
visit
there to
Katwyk; and
make
it
portraits,
used no canvas or colors), that they would allow us
them in our work. There were, of course,
the difficulties
which a stranger unacquainted
with the language must expect, but these were soon overcome and are not
sufficiently
important to be dwelt upon.
One of the
unpleasant features the photographer has to contend with
and to find one's plate-holders
filled
the lens barrel poUshed to an undesirable degree,
The houses
in
Katwyk
is
not
is
not a
common
the sand storm;
uncommon.
are built to resist the onslaught
of the elements, and are small, low
and dark, having often but one window, making "interiors" next
running water
is
with fme sand, the varnish gone from the camera, and
luxury, developing
is
to impossible;
fraught with dangers and
and
as
difficulties.
When the photographer has made all the pictures he can and has left his work still uncommenced, for Katwyk is inexhaustible, he has but to
180
travel for fifteen minutes to find the green
fields,
romantic windiniUs, and shepherds with their flocks, which serve as aspiration for the
grand pastoral pictures of Israels and
his followers.
my
Photographic Notes. The pictures taken during
and Schleussner ortho
plates.
The
near perfection as one can wish
for.
The
trip
were made with Lumiere ortho
probably the more rehable, and are certainly
latter are
the use of a color screen. Although having various lenses with me,
anastigmat,
plates
i :7/^,
invariably used the Zeiss
with a Thomton-Pickard time and instantaneous
were developed during the tour
at night.
as
extremely rapid, and do not necessitate
plates are
All
my
shutter.
Most of
were taken on
pictures
plates;
the
my
experience with films never having been very fortunate.
2.
"A
There
is
no reason why
by photographic means
that
PHOroGTHAVHic mosaics,
Plea for Art Photography in America,"
he does not do
Every exhibition
New
Enghsh brethren
across the long pond,
which the two meet proves
in
York City
last
have
we
May. And why not?
not the same material to
difference existing
server
we not
critic will
content to remain there, inasmuch as
that
we
grant that
we seem
ahead with that American will-power which
In
what
all,
by
respects are
those of our
Enghsh
Enghsh, what
we
is
skill to
our photographs
that taste
still
many
is
so greatly admired
by
deficient,
we
more
are, in
is
at original
is
we
at the
forward to push
the
whole
civili2ed
especially
when compared with
our technique, fuUy equal to the
value in other words,
a.
is
essential
picture.
we are struck by the con-
we see the same types of country roads, of wood interiors,
we
see the
same groups
at doorsteps
the same unfortunate attempts at illustrating popular poetry; the same
crude- that
look
and sense for composition and for tone, which
the everlasting waterfall, village scenes;
Such attempts
still
lengths in the rear, apparently
to lack the energy to strive
through an exhibition of American photographs,
ventionahty of the subjects chosen;
exceptions,
reproduce what
and
all this,
the Americans themselves.
in producing a photograph of artistic
When we go
same
have
Exhibition
Have we Americans
of our Enghsh cousins. Every impartial ob-
are
colleagues? Granting that
lack
the
We
cannot compete
at the Joint
should like to ask.
work with?
between our work and
and unbiassed
world, and most of
the fact remains
still
"We
this statement.
heard remarked over and over again
not the same innate sense for the beautiful? have

see?
as beautiful pictures
and
so.
with those Enghsh fellows,"

held in
American amateur should not turn out
the
as his
i8g2.
composition
as
we come
to say, far-fetched
across are, with
and urmatural. In some
undoubtedly good, the resulting picture shows an
entire lack
and on
etc., etc.,
piazzas;
ad infinitum.
some few meritorious

cases,
where the idea
of serious study of the
subject.
and
from want of that
suffers
make-up. SimpUcity,
might
artistic sense
say,
studied the masters must arrive
at.
is
which loves simpHcity and
key
to
all
in order to
produce
artistic pictures.
only be attained through cultivation and conscientious study of art in
Another quaUty our photographs

exquisite atmospheric effects
are sadly deficient in
which we admire
in the pictures of an American. This
is
Atmosphere
is
the
medium
in their true value
Atmosphere
on
in the
Enghsh
The
sharp outhiies which
inasmuch
from hght
atmosphere
is
The
I
subjects
to shade;
thought by
3.
my
and
blurred outline
is
the di-
there.
essential to
characteristic for
is
artist. It
to see
is
to a picture.
perfection
must be borne
in
tone are quite different tilings.
lines
would well bear
however, that these few remarks, such
American
it is
we Americans are so proud of as being proof of great
touched upon in these
sincerely hope,
here
as
to Nature, tone
in our art are untrue to Nature, and hence an abomination to the
mind, however, that
Those
we see all tilings. In order, therefore,

we do in Nature, atmosphere must be
Now, what
due to atmosphere.
is
forms.
pictures are rarely, if ever, seen
the reproduction of the sense of distance. That dinmess of outline which

distant objects
has
two
These quahties can
all its
tlirough wliich
graduates the transition
it
who
first
picture.
a photograph, as
softens all lines;
superficial
all
the entire lack of tone.
is
a very serious deficiency,
viding Hne between a plwtograpJi and a
them
hates
art a conviction that anybody
OriginaHty, hand-in-hand with simphcity, are the
which we Americans need
quahties
the
more
detailed treatment.
as riiey are, will give rise to further
colleagues.
"The Hand Camera Its Present Importance," TUB American annual of

PHOTOGRAPHY AND PHOTOGRAPHIC TIMES ALMANAC FOR 1897.
Photography
Those
as a
fad
is
well-nigh on
seriously interested in
its
its last legs,
thanks principally to the bicycle craze.
advancement do not look upon
this state
of affairs
as a
mis-
fortime, but as a disguised blessing, inasmuch as photography had been classed as a sport
nearly
all
persons
of those
who seem
who
deserted
to look
upon
its
ranks and fled to the present idol, the bicycle.
this
turn of affairs as entirely
in manufacturing and selling photographic goods.
It
unwelcome
by
The only
are those
engaged
was, imdoubtedly, due to the hand
camera that photography became so generally popular a few years ago. Every Tom, Dick
and Harry could, without trouble, learn
and
this is
how
to get sometliing or other
what the pubhc wanted no work and
persons hand camera and bad
lots
"You
press the button,
a sensitive plate,
efforts
of these
work became synonymous. The chmax was reached when an
enterprising firm flooded the market with a very ingenious
ment,
on
of fun. Thanks to the
and
we do
the rest." This
182
hand camera and the announce-
was the beginning of the "photo-
graphing-by-the-yard"
and the ranks of enthusiastic Button Pressers were enlarged to
era,
enormous dimensions. The hand camera ruled supreme.

Originally
known under
owner to be somewhat of a
who
trotter,
But
it
to the
wants of him whose aim
work
serious
two
the
the pictorial photographer
The
writer
hand camera
is
class
its
all this
toy,
is
it is
good
as
to
he passed along
do
serious
but
of the globe-
journey, but in
many who
claim that for
sadly handicapped.
who cannot too strongly recommend the trial of the

He frankly confesses that for many years he be-
of photography.
which opposed
it
cham-
work.
its
was due
use for picture making. This
cause in the fact that the impression had been given
impression, as
his
the
in itself,
not only excellently adapted, but that without
is
exposure strong sunhght was sina qua non. The manufacturer

false
all
enough
for the purposes
has been changed. There are
hand camera
amongst the advocates
for this class
longed to that
which found
mere
as a
wished to jot dovwi photographic notes
in the past year or
most
"Detective," necessarily insinuating the
the small instrument, innocent
hands of the unknowing,
no way adapted
just the
name of
hand camera was in very bad repute with
They looked upon
pions of the tripod.

terrible in the
the odious
sneak, the
was he who put up the uniform
is
him
chiefly to
rule that the
to a prejudice
that for
hand camera
be blamed for
this
camera should be held in
such a position that the sunhght comes from over one of the shoulders, in order to insure such
hghting
expose the
as to fully
possibihties
of liis
own ware
plate. In short, the
manufacturer himself did not realize the
and invention.
In preparing for hand camera work, the choice of the instrument
Upon
this subject that able artist,
with the hand camera,
no more important
may
making an exposure without

style
a hght-tight
be able to bring
a conscious thought.
it
hands to prepare the camera while
his
that
it
mind and
his satchel
this respect,
it
will
of vital importance.
much of his work
suitable lens, there
The adjustments ought
Each worker
of camera comes nearest to perfection in
he should study to become so intimate with
from
is
does
camera and
quality than ease in mechanical working.
so simple that the operator
which
J.
"Having secured
says:
who
Craig Annan, of Glasgow,
will
and get
have
his
it
to
is
be
in order for
own idea as to
and having made his choice
become
a second nature with his
eyes are fully occupied with the subject
before him."
To
this let
me
add, that whatever camera
may
be chosen
let it
be waterproof, so
permit photographing in rain or shine without damage to the box.
approve of compUcated mechanisms,
as
The
as to
writer does not
they are sure to get out of order at important
mo-
ments, thus causing considerable unnecessary swearing, and often the loss of a precious opportunity.
it
My own camera
has had
is
of the simplest pattern and has never
some very tough handhng
greater importance than

in pictures, a shutter
its
speed.
working
at a
in
left
me in the lurch, although
wind and storm. The rehabihty of the
As racehorse
shutter
scenes, express trains, etc., are rarely
is
of
wanted
speed of one-fourth to one-twenty-fifth of a second will
183
answer
purposes. Microscopic sharpness
all
is
of no
subject will often aid in giving the impression
As
for plates, use the fastest
lens except at the seashore,
you can
and
set
This will ensure a fuUy exposed

as
get.
pictorial value.
They cannot be too
your shutter
at as
fast.
slow speed
Under exposures
plate.
A little blurr in a moving
of action and motion.
Do not stop down your
as the subject will permit.
are best relegated to the ash-barrel,
they are useless for pictorial work.
The one quahty

This
is
absolutely necessary for success in
keynote to the whole matter.
really the
hand camera workers shooting offa ton of plates
Once
ultunate result.
it is
interesting to note
chance so
that
would
it
regardless of figures,
that
satisfies
is,
your
Avenue, Winter,"
result contained
by means of the hand camera
is
figures
and await the moment
showed
it
rot.
"Why,
it
the remarks
was the
moment.
to
the
many
same
be the favorites of
to
not everything,
after all.
in
which everything
patience
My
is
in balance;
picture, "Fifth
snowstorm on February
Of course,
was duly rewarded.

for hours
the
without succeed-
colleagues.
They smiled and

it
advised
me
to
throw away
for an enlargement!"
Such were
piece of work quite out of the ordinary, in that
it
attempt at picture making with the hand camera in such adverse and trying
when
the finished picture
side, for
them
conclusively that there
season" than that so fuUy
is
At
well to choose your subject,
it is
might have stood there
made about what I knew was a
first
is
flukes.
patient waiting.
even sharp, and he wants to use
other
for the
this cause that
remember how upon having developed the negative of the
some of my
isn't
as
My
circumstances firom a photographic point of view.
alone
due to
the result of a three hours' stand during a fierce
an element of chance,
means hours of
eye. Tliis often
ing in getting the desired picture.
such
it is
men seem
with what regularity certain
22d, 1893, awaiting the proper
picture
and
a hit,
and carefully study the hnes and Hghting. After having determined upon
watch die passing
these
helter-skelter, taking their chances as to the
make
lead us to conclude that, perhaps, chance
In order to obtain pictures
Patience.
is
amusing to watch the majority of
produced by means of the hand camera have been considered
pictures
time
in a wlaile these people
hand camera work
It is
was
Some
time
later the
was other photographic work open
set forth in
to
it
proved to
them during
the
the photographic journals under the heading,
Winter Months." This incident
also goes to
My
not the making of the picture.
express purpose of enlargement, and
laugh was on the
same gentlemen
shovioi to these
it is
"bad
"Work
prove that the making of the negative
hand camera negatives
but rarely that
use
more
are
all
than part
made with
the
of the original
shot.
Most of
has taught
my
me
successful
The hand camera
A word to
work of late
that the prints
has
the wise
is
from the
come
to
has been produced

direct negatives
stay its importance
sufficient.
by
tliis
have but
is
method.
My
experience
Httlc value as such.
acknowledged.
"Pictorial Photography," scniB-NE-R's
4-
About
ten years ago the
magazine,
movement toward
the confusion in which photography had been
could be pursued
who
such by those
as
loved
i8gg.
pictorial
photography evolved
bom, and took
art
itself
a definite shape in
out of
which
it
and sought some medium other dian brush
or pencil dirough which to give expression to their ideas. Before that time
pictorial photography, as the term was then understood, was looked upon as the bastard
of science and
hampered and held back by the one, denied and ridiculed by the other.
firom this statement diat
no
really artistic
be a misconception; but the point

previously, there
Let
is
that
photographic
It
work had been
art,
must not be thought
done, for that would
though some excellent pictures had been produced
was no organized movement recognized
as such.
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 aU the greatest work is being,
and has always been
who are foUowing photography for the love of it, and not merely for financial
As the name imphes, an amateur is one who works for love; and
viewed in this hght
the incorrectness of die popular classification is readily apparent.
done, by those
reasons.
Pictures,
even extremely poor ones, have invariably some measure of
savage kjiows
no other way
has selected this
method
as
to perpetuate the history
of his
race; the
attraction.
The
most highly civiHzed
being the most quickly and generaUy comprehensible.

Owing,
therefore, to the universal interest in pictures
and the ahnost universal desire to produce them,
the placing in the hands of die general pubhc a means of making

pictures widi but Httle labor
and requiring less knowledge has of necessity been foUowed
by the production of millions
of photographs.
due to
It is
this fatal faciHty that
has fallen into disrepute in so
many
quarters;
photography
as a
picture-making
and because there are few people
medium
who
are not
famihar with scores of inferior photographs the popular
verdict finds aU photographers
professionals or "fiends."
Nothing could be
farther firom the truth than this,
and
in the photographic
world to-day
there are recognized but diree classes of photographersthe ignorant, the purely technical,
and the artistic. To the pursuit, the fnst bring nothing but what is not
desirable; the second,'
a purely technical education obtained after years of study;
and the tliird bring die feeHng and
inspiration of the artist, to which is added afterward the
purely technical knowledge. This
class
devote the best part of dieir Hves to die work, and
tance with
them and
the abihty to
make
their
it is only after an intimate acquainproducdons that the casual observer comes to reahze the fact
that
a truly artisdc
ardstic instinct coupled
photograph
with years of labor.
to quote the language of a great authority
It
is
not acquired offliand, but
is
the result
will help to a better understanding
on
pictorial
185
photography, one to
of an
of this point
whom
it
owes
more than
he
calling
any other man, Dr.
to
"Photography has been
says:
a mechanical process.
it
that because
photography
much 'hand-work'
bom
fl(f
P.
H. Emerson. In
called
not 'hand- work,'
is
in
work, "Naturalistic Photography,"
as the
it therefore
of thoughtlessness. The painter learns
much
is
which has been combated
great paradox
head-work
his
an irresponsive medium. This
public
it is
say though we
not an
point
is,
what you have
all
the
say ami
to
same
find there
This
art language.
is
is
a very severe
it is
energies even after he has mastered technique.
how
say
it.
very
a fallacy
artist's
to
as
technique in order to speak, and he considers
his
painting a mental process. So with photography, speaking artistically of it,
mental process, and taxes
the
the assumption
is
The
originaUty of a
work of art
The
refers to the
originahty of the thing expressed and the
way it is expressed, whether it be in poetry, photog-
raphy, or painting. That one technique
is
more
than another to learn no one will
difficult
deny; but the greatest thoughts have been expressed by means of the simplest teclinique,
writing."
In the infancy of photography, as apphed to the making of pictures,
supposed that
after the selection
of the
ment, every succeeding step was purely mechanical, requiring
of
was the
this
inevitable
mechanism, the crude
Within the
last
stiffness
not
and the
like are
as tyrants to
The
of the medium
and brought to
marked change
there has been a

process,
in
upon
tyrants, will
all
knowledge of art and its
its
great principles,
in all this. Lens, camera, plate, developing-baths, printing
had been the
as
lens,
even to-day come

It
case.
camera, plate,
as a
shock to
must be admitted
etc.,
are phant tools
many who have
that
tliis
verdict
tacitly
was based
of the evidence mechanical professional work. This evidence, however,
best kind to support such a verdict.
tenths of the photographic
therefore that
like productions.
used by them simply as tools for the elaboration of their ideas, and
ensbve and dwarf them,
a great mass
result
which they worked on the one hand, and
their labors a
accepted the popular verdict to the contrary.
was not of the
and develop-
no thought. The
of the photographic workers began to
serious
statement that the photographic apparatus,
and not mechanical
httle or
and vulgarity of chromos, and other
few years, or since the more
the other,
was generally
one of stamping on every picture thus produced the brand of
realize the great possibihties
demands on
it
subjects, the posing, hghting, exposure,
work put
It
unquestionably estabhshed that nine-
before the pubhc was purely mechanical; but to argue
photographic work must therefore be mechanical was to argue from the
premise to an inconsequent conclusion, a fact that a brief examination of some of the photograpliic processes will
demonstrate beyond contradiction. Consider, for example, the question
of the development of a
plate.
The accepted
idea
solution, allowed to develop to a certain point,
not overdeveloped or fogged, notliing further

truth.
The photographer
is
that
it is
simply immersed
and fixed: and

is
that,
beyond
required. This, however,
in a
dcvelopuig
a care that
is
far
it
be
from the
has his developing solutions, his restrainers, his forcing baths, and
the like, and in order to turn out a plate
whose
186
tonal values will be relatively true he
must
development. This, of course, requires a knowledge of and feeling for the
resort to local
comprehensive and beautiful tonality of natiure. As

scientifically correct scale
it
has never been possible to estabHsh a
of values between the high Hghts and the deep shadows, the photog-
rapher, like the painter, has to depend
upon
his
observation of and feeling for nature in the
production of a picture. Therefore he develops one part of

forces a third,
and so on; keeping
whole may be harmonious
in order that the

plate
development.
It
show
will also
in tone. This will illustrate the plastic nature of
that the photographer
the positive, but also with the negative value of tones.

plastic
and not a mechanical process.
becomes
just as the brush
his negative, restrains another,
the wliile a proper relation between the dilTerent parts,
all
It is
true that
it
The
must be famihar not only with
turning out of prints likewise
mechanical agent in the hands of the mere copyist
hundreds of paint-covered canvases without being entitled to be ranked

proper hands printmaking
is
essentially plastic in
An examination of either the platinum

of the day, wiU
more
of these. Most of the
true
or the
these processes, because
ment, the print
and
as
is
been made,
To
it is
its
developed
locally, as
all
this is
due the
be
altered.
With
be given of a
at
the process
fact that
becomes
from
any time be used
all
hke
the picture's fmal
facile
is
was the
With
plate.
which
the actual beau-
their pictures
it is
on
as easy a
it is
matter to recognize
to recognize that of Rem-
fiom
the engraver finishes his work, and
and to change the
must
results the plate
may
without any alterations whatever in the negative, which
may
of purely mechanical
prints.
interest,
and bids
The
charm or
latest
experi-
new field that of local
brush
produce colors and impart to the finished
fair to result in
which has not yet been
some very
beautiful
work.
referred to almost absolute control of tonality,
given to the photographer, on whose knowledge and
artistic
even
one or the other of
maker of the print;
different solutions, so as to
much
in
the contrary, a variety of interpretations
method of local treatment above
In the
done
the characteristics of a tinted wash-drawing. This process,
sphere, and the
not
is
media
is
interpretations will
when
for striking off a quantity
perfected, has excited
the
great printing
this direction, a facUity
ments with the platinum process have opened up an entirely
development with
picture
two
same way, no two
a mechanical one;
the skilled photographer,
plate or negative
but in
these as they impressed the
are ever impressed in quite the
brandt or Reynolds. In engraving, art stops
on
turns out
artist;
almost unHmited. In the former process,
the style of the leading workers in the photographic world as
that time
who
an
tonal values ever before the mind's eye during the develop-
so developed as to render
no two people
ever be ahke.
process, the
of the great facHity they afford in
of the original scene, and
ties
gum
is
nature.
work of the day
really great
students of the subject are beginning to realize

after the print has
its
as
once demonstrate that what has already been asserted of the plate
at
is
can be made mechanical by the craftsman,
taste
By
atmo-
depends
inartistic offensiveness.
"gum- process," long ago discarded by old-time photographers as worthless, because

from the mechanical point of view, but revived of recent
187
years, the artist has a
medium
of any
that permits the production
These
effect desired.
word
"unphotograpliic" in the popular sense of that

ignorant of the method of producing them. In
as to
effects are invariably so
be decried
rough drawing parchment; he
is
by those
his
own
from the even-surfaced
paper, using any kind of surface most suited to the result wanted,
plate paper to
as illegitimate
photographer prepares
this process the
also at hberty to select the color in
which he
wishes to finish his picture, and can produce at will an india-ink, red-chalk, or any other color
The
desired.
been made he moistens
print having
remove any portion of its
thin-out, shade, or
printing-over,
etc.,
by which
a good, bad, or indifferent
was invariably
It
inartistic,
in the
methods above described and the introduction of many
the art-movement, as such, took a
more
definite shape, and,
The men who were
same time innovators, and while they reahzed
at the
had
their art
hmitations, they also appreciated
its
gen-
of values, and always unphotograpliic, and has to-day almost disappeared.
gives promise of a robust maturity.
and
the process
a system of recoating,
the appreciation of the plastic nature of the photograpliic processes
improvement
them
"is
by
color-effect.
converted into a bad drawing or painting."
is
erally destructive
With
and with a spray of water or brush can
he can combine almost any tone or
"Retouching," says Dr. Emerson,
photograph
it,
surface. Besides this,
supposed to be the
fact, that
though yet
responsible for
all tliis
that, like the painter
what up
to dieir time
came
others.
in
its
the
With
infancy,
were masters
and the engraver
was not generally
the accessories necessary for the production of a photograph
admitted of the giving expression to individual and original ideas in an original and distinct
manner, and that photographs could be
moved by one
art
and
its
progress will convince the reader that to-day pictorial photography
estabUshed on a firm and
are
shown
that
artistic basis. In
nearly every art-centre exhibitions of photographs
have been judged by juries composed of artists and those famihar with the
technique of photography, and passed upon as to their purely

the art-centre of Germany, die "Secessionists," a
and gifted
narrow
men
rules
to be judged
that
is
it
of their times,
of custom and
on
its
who
coming
to appreciate
the prices paid for
name
indicates they
Of the
have broken away from the
medium of the camera. And
tliis is
pictorial
photograph
their pictures original
artistic merit.
some of these
that the art-loving
evidenced by the fact that there are
The
significance
some
many
private art
photographs that have been
it
being not an unusual thing
collector for
upward of one hundred
permanent merit of these pictures posterity must be the judge,
188
fact
pubHc
of this will be the more marked
pictures are considered,
to hear of a single photograph having been sold to

dollars.
merit; while in Munich,
have admitted the claims of the
number among
purchased because of their real
artistic
body of artists comprising the most advanced
work of art independently, and without considering the
has been produced through the
rapidly
the
(as
tradition)
merits as a
collections to-day that
when
maker was
as their
cursory review of the magazines and papers the world over that devote their energies
and columns to
is
and impressionistic just
realistic
or the other influence.
as
is
die case
with every production in any branch of
designed to endure beyond the period of a
art
generation.
The
pubhc
field
open
professional
photography
to pictorial
that acquires
its
show windows and photo-supply
to-day enters practically nearly every
come
as
scapes,
is
to-day practically unlimited.
knowledge of the scope and
Hniitations of modern
cases, the
is
is
from
studied
barring that of color, will
the case: portrait work, genre-studies, land-
and marine, these and a thousand other subjects occupy
Hght and atmosphere
the general
statement that the photographer of
field that the painter treads,
something of a revelation. Yet such
To
photography from
its artistic
his attention.
Every phase of
point of view, and as a result
we
have the
beautiful night pictures, actually taken at the time depicted, storm scenes, approaching storms,
marvellous sunset-skies,
all
sufficient that these pictures
of which are already famihar to magazine readers.

be
true in their rendering
they portray, but they must also be so
produce them
maker must be
their
as to the
And
it is
correcmess of their composition. In order to
quite as famihar with the laws of composition as
landscape or portrait painter; a fact not generally understood. Metropohtan scenes,

in themselves, have been presented in such a
not
of tonal-values of the place and hour
way
as to
is
the
homely
impart to them a permanent value
because of the poetic conception of the subject displayed in their rendering. In portraiture,
retoucliing
and the vulgar "shine" have been

with the
portraits that are strong

rests, artificial
backgrounds, carved
workshops of the
inartistic
sole claim to the artistic

"Artistic Photographs
chairs,
and the
done away with, and instead we have

of the
sitter.
like are
now
In this department headto be
found only in the
craftsman, that class of so-caUed portrait photographers

the glaring sign
hung without
whose
their shops bearing the legend,
Made Within." The attitude of the general pubhc toward modem photog-
raphy was never better
The
is
entirely
characteristic traits
illustrated
speaker had gone from
than by the remark of an art student at a recent exhibition.
"gum
print" to "platinum," and
from landscape
to genre-study,
with evident and ever-increasing surprise; had noted that instead of being purely mechanical,
the printing processes
the
same
sort
were
distinctly individual,
of print; had seen
how
and
that the negative never twice yielded
wonderfully true the tonal renderings,
how
strong the
how free fi"om the stiff, characterless countenance of the average professional work,
and in a word how full of feeling and thought was every picture shown. Then came the
words, "But this is not photography!" Was this true? No! For years the photographer has
portraits,
moved onward
first
by
steps,
and
finally
by
strides
but httle of his work, advanced and improved
of perfection. This
world
is
is
and
leaps, and,
he has brought
though the world knew

his art to
its
present state
the real photography, the photography of to-day; and that
accustomed to regard
ignorant imposition.
till
as pictorial
photography
is
not the
real
which the
photography, but an
5.
"The
In
all
BAVSCH and lomb lens souvenir,
Photo-Secession,"
ipoj.
The progress of the ages has been rhythmic and not continuous, although always forward.
phases of human activity the tendency of the masses has been invariably towards ultra
conservatism. Progress has been accompUshed only
by reason of the
fanatical enthusiasm
the revolutionist, whose extreme teaching has saved the mass from utter
as conservative
to-day accepted
that
it
to the extremist that
it is
raphy
followed
also has
this
was yesterday denounced
mankind
largely
owes
its
of
is
as revolutionary. It follows, then,
progression. In this coimtry, photog-
law, and whatever have been the achievements which have
won
exceptional distinction, they have been attained by die efforts of the enthusiastic so-called
however, to
extremists. True,
achieved only through bitter
of photography along the
this
general law of development, these results have been
strife, until
lines
of
art
those most deeply interested in the advancement
have been compelled to
the reactionary spirit of the masses. This protest, this secession

naire,
of the compromiser,
Secession.
raphy in
Its
aim
is
length found
at
its
medium of individual
The
creed, but he
"The
spirit
of the doctri-
expression in the foundation of the Photo-
its
recognition, not as the
expression.
The
against the insincere attitude of the unbeliever,

authorities.
register their protest against
from the
loosely to hold together those Americans devoted to pictorial photog-
endeavor to compel
their
distinctive
6.
What
inertia.
Secessionist lays
demands
no claim
the right to
attitude
handmaiden of
of its members
his
but as a
art,
one of rebelhon
of the Phihstine, and largely of exhibition
to infaUibihty, nor does
work out
is
own
Photo-Secession and the St. Louis Exposition,"
he pin
his faith to
any
photographic salvation.
amateur photographer,
14 April 1904.
[The Photo-Secession] demands not only that worthy individual work be recognised,
but that such
asserted
work
by some
as a
whole be given a recognised
that this wall
place
come about of itself in due
His long experience has taught the writer that even in the
among
the creative
course without
arts
recognition
all this
is
arts. It is
agitation.
accorded largely
through precedents, and precedent can be created only by following a defmite and consistent
course of action.
upon
The Photo-Secession, whose
the principles for
individuals. ...
It
which
who
are
working with
but
it
has
no wish
infallible; it has
to stand in the
serious purposes,
when
organisers insisted even before
its
establishment
now stands, now does as a body what previously they did as
does not claim to be
those outside of its body;
sionistic ideas;
it
no
no matter how much they may
asked to participate in any exhibition
190
any way with
desire to iiiterfere in
way of those American
it
will
do
photographers
differ
from Scces-
so only
when
the
principles for wliich
it
stands are recognised, claiming
co-operation where recognition of
its
American
who, having
pictorial photographers,
desirable to
claims
band themselves together and
constitutes photography,
its
refused.
is
privilege to withhold
It is
certain views in
to secede
its
support or
simply a loose organisation of
common, have found
from the conventional
and to compel the recognition of photography
as a
it
of what
ideas
medium of
individual expression.
7.
"Twelve Random Dont's,"
photographic topics,
January igog.
Don't beheve you must be a pictorial photographer. The world sorely needs more scientific
and some
pictorial
first-class
commercial photographers. Possibly your
photography,
like
bad "art painting,"
is
Don't worry about innumerable formulae. Get a few
up in your workroom
certain
to fully digest them.
talents
he in that direction. Bad
a crime.
and then shut yourself
tried ones
The fewer formulae,
the fewer failures; the
more
your progress.
Don't
let
Don't plagiarize
akin to a
which lead
if you
thief. Plagiarizing
more abominable than

(n.b.
you
the wiseacres lead
tissue are the secret paths
can help
into beheving that fuzziness,

into the
it. It
charmed
can't give
does not carry with
it
circle
you any
gum, varnish and Japan
of the Photo-Secession.
know
real pleasure to
yourself
penal punishment; for that very reason
it is
stealing in the ordinary sense.
Photographic editors should discourage the vicious habit. See prize-winners in
numerous magazines.)
Don't beheve you became an
artist
the instant
you
Kodak on Xmas
received a gift
morning.
Don't beheve
on
pictorial
that because
photography and
of your lack of taste you are privileged to
art matters in general.
The world
in
its
air
entirety
your opinions
is
not a camera
club.
Don't beheve that the snapshot you have made

painter has asked
painting.
him
to
its
is
for a copy.
Your photograph, he
use.
Some
Don't beheve
tion
you
It is
is
"genuine work of art" because some
just possible that
argues,
is
an accident;
he
may need
it
his appreciation
for his next original
of that
fact entitles
painters are unusually clever some photographers are even
that experts are
usually nothing
more than
Don't be discouraged because
so.
perspiration recrystahzed.
after a
week of real hard work your
Steichen or a best White. Photography of that class
worth wlnle means continuous
more
bom. They are the results of hard work. Remember inspira-
struggle
is
print
not quite as simple as
it
is
and concentration of effort even
191
not up to a best
looks. Everything
in photography.
Don't believe that a semi-achromatic
Both have
their
lens
is
preferable to an anastigmat, nor vice-versa.
proper uses and are consequently invaluable; neither should be sacrificed for
the other.
Don't believe
raphy
as
furnish
it
with
p.s.
life.
it
only flhn deep.
But don't beheve
may
that
see for you, but
open eyes
all
its
see.
may have
eye
is
chosen photog-
Your eye should
dead.
Seeing needs practicejust hke
itself.
Don't beheve
have to quarrel
if
of tliis dehghtful
you must. But you won't
who
same time
as
It is
with him that you will
narrowed
an ehte group of
his attention to
shared a similar understanding of and aspiration for their medium. But
he focused
his efforts
of his investigation of the medium.

pictorial expression," Stieghtz
Illustrations,"
If
on
a select few, he also
its
began to expand the scope
photography was "a legitimate medium of personal
MTOte in 1910, then
with other mediums in order that
judged" ("Our
monthly.
httle
must.
From 1902 through 1910 Stieglitz

photographers
random remarks. They have been
claim any originahty for the above
called forth to satisfy the editor
at the
thinks
with your eyes closed, even though you
life
your vocation. The machine
photography
him who
that beauty reveals itself to
Don't go through
possibilities
it
"should take
its
place in
open review
and hmitations might be the more
Camera Work no. 32 [October 1910],
47).
It
fairly
was only by com-
paring photographic expression vidth other forms of artistic expression that Stieghtz beheved
he could understand the inherent
characteristics
nonphotographic exhibition was held
compared photography
at
of photography. From 1907 when the
291 to the
last
show
to painting, drawing, sculpture,
first
in 1917, Stieghtz systematically
and the graphic
arts in
order to
understand "the idea photography."
8.
Letter to Ernst Juhl, 6 January igii.
Yesterday
exhibition was
sent
you
the catalogue of the Buffalo exhibition
which has just ended. This
vidthout a doubt the most important that has been held
won't be seeing anything

best
of their kind that
way
originals,
only
like
exist,
it
in the near future.
Only very
anywhere so
select prints, in
most
and with the exception of about 20 gravures wliich
original prints
[were shown].
192
The Albright Art
Gallery
is
the
far.
We
cases the
are in their
most beau-
America and
tiful gallery in
strong
one of the most important. The exhibition made such a
also
impression that the management bought 12 pictures for 1200 marks (catalogue
artistic
value 2400 marks) and has dedicated a beautiful gallery to these pictures.
be mzintnined permanently for
photography. In short the dream
artistic
has been rea]izcd the full recognition of photography by an important
9.
Letter to Sadakichi
Since
career.
you
year ago
left a
finally
too
at Picasso, Matisse,
winding up with two days
Paris.
it
Steichen too
Berlin
There
Louvre which
my
have had long most interesting
Rodin, Gordon Craig, Vollard, Bemheim's,
at the
De
in reahty
Pellerin's;
saw for the fnst time. Then
growing
is
fast.
most unusual and
What a
think they
the seven years at "291"
experiences had
several
all
this
company of De
did in the
Zayas has developed most remarkably and

pity
you
we were
thoroughly enjoyed the treasures
come
had
psychological
done for me. All
helped add to prepare
me
moment.
us.
my
privileged to see. In short
at the
really
couldn't have been with
Paris
my work,
all
a big fellow.
is
You would
have
experiences
were
made me
realize
my many and nasty
for the tremendous experience.
Think of it,
hundred Cezanne's any number of Van Gogh's and Renoir's these are the three big
modem painters.
Matisse
is
bigger; he
that
sibly the
how or other it didn't grip

me the bigger man. I think his viewpoint is
doing some beautiful work, but some
me. Possibly he is ahead of me! Picasso appears to
what
museum!
art
saw the various Salons beginning with the old one, then the Champs de Mars and the
Zayas or Steichen, or both.
man
This gallery will
has been one crescendo culminating
Salon des Independents, finally the Salon d'Automne. All
what
had in 188^ in
have undoubtedly had the most remarkable year in
with a most remarkable three weeks spent in

with or
Hartmann, 22 December igii.
Beginning with the Albright Art GaOery show
sessions
may not as yet fully realize in his work the thing he is after,
is
counting.
most
It
was
interesting yet held there,
this
country
you missed
and that
is
of shows have been held
a remarkable series
ever held in
a great pity that
as far as art is
concerned.
of some big man's work. Europe has nothing
his httle
saying a great deal

there;
but
show
at
am sure he
"291."
It
is
the
was pos-
when one remembers
undoubtedly the most remarkable
We have certainly shown the quintessence
similar to
it.
There have been
greater, larger
When
New Yorkers
exhibitions there but there never has been such a series with such a definite purpose.
I
came back from Europe
it
took
me about
three
New York itself was as wonderful as ever.

he returned from the Venusberg and
about love. There
genuine love for
is
it.
certainly
no
weeks
I felt
the
lost his patience
art in
to reconcile
way Tannhauser must have
no genuine love
193
felt
when
hstening to his colleagues theorizing
America today, what
Possibly Americans have
myself to
is
more, there
is,
as yet,
for anything, but
am
no
not
I am quite the contrary. The season at "291" opened with a Burgess show;
now the De Meyer's, which were in Buffalo together with a few new things, are on the walls.
De Meyer and his wife are here and both are interesting people. His show is a good one; his
hopeless. In fact
work
distinguished and the
is
No man cannot
sincere.
will develop with him.
The
and other people,
painters,
medium
beyond
get
is
fully mastered
from one point of view. His work
De Meyer
himself. Should
develop personally
is
work
his
trouble with most photographers, and for that matter also with
do something which
that they are always trying to
is,
is
outside
who have
the gift of or intuition for truth: all else is really not worth a tinker's damn. Of course I know
truth is an awfully relative thing, constantly changing, but basically it is constant. ... I am
of themselves. In consequence they produce nothing that
my pictures
glad that
of fresh
air to a great
work; but
daily
gamed something
people.
It's
be.
a pity
more and more,
more time
can't afford
that in sacrificing
could have never possessed, and that
thing than merely expressing oneself in
might
to those
gave you some pleasure. The number seems to have come
many
realize
I
means anything
is
as a
breath
for this branch of the
my own
photography
have
certainly a bigger thing; a bigger
making photographs, no matter how marvelous they
10. Letter to Heinrich Kiihn, 14 October igi2.
that
You
don't understand what Picasso
you can't read
Camera
Work
accompUshed
the text in
will strive that
artistically in
once and for
means
[aesthetically]
Co. have to do with photography!
all
it
one
would help you
may
some
get
hate that word!); and thirdly,
(I
whether
Too bad
to imderstand.
idea of
photography; secondly, whatever struggle
world to respect art-photography

tially
&
Camera Work, perhaps
it costs,
what
With
what has been

to
compel the
pliotogrnphy essen-
employed through the camera (photography
in the
purest sense) or through a painter with his brush (photography in an intellectual sense just as
much
as
stract
(without subject) like Picasso
art
though
camera were used).
Now
etc.,
find that
whether attempted with camera or with brush
before the door of a
medium
the
true
But
hope you
Work, people
new social era,

(abstraction).
will get
some
will understand
so
that
art consists
of the ab-
devoted
not the highest
too before a
mean. Well,
my life to
have long recognized
194
art.
Just as
we
stand
new medium of expression
cannot express myself better in German.
notion of what
why I have
to understand in the sense in wliich
is
we stand in art
Too bad
faint
contemporary
and the photographic. The so-called photographic
in time,
through Camera
photography they
it.
will
come
D.
11. Letter to George
as
Don't worry that
much
as ever.
As
December igi2.
Pratt, 7
am not
a matter
meaning of
real
means,
really
art.
Camera Work and
That
this
as
interest
am
edition
as
essential for
it is
As
It is
for "Post Impressionism"
meaningless and atrocious. But
it is
men
races. It
is
this
what
to be taught the
manner
that
it
have
will
not a ques-
who receive it are
many of the most
cultured people in
that these people are beginning to
Camera Work
is
more than
name
is
a vital force.
it is
a vital force.
True most of the
stuff done in
its
and Picasso and a few others are
like Matisse
antiphotographic; their art
is
them
of the globe. Those
Work
through Camera
book of beautiful photographs;
most cultured
once told you,
way, objectively, impersonally. Camera
scientific
small, reaches every part
is
well as in America.
Their vision
me it is not a question of personal Hkes and dislikes;
discover the true value of photography esthetically. In short,

picture
as
attempting to do, not only at "291" but through
not the every day photographer, but the Ubraries and
Europe
But
greater.
trying to do in such a conclusive
approach the subject in a
Work, although its
was never
that matter the artists themselves, understand
understand that term,
work I am
been done for aU time. With

tion of theory;
what
is
my
and for
that before the people at large,
photography
looking after the interests of pictorial photography quite
of fact
wiU Hve
as
long
as art
giants.
wiU mean anything
antiphotography in their mental attitude and in their
to the
work
that
am using in order to emphasise the meaning of photography. It is one of the main causes
why I am dweUing so persistently on the meaning of "Post Impressionism." I feel that within
I
main part of my work for photography wiU have been completed.

my intention to continue Camera Work indefmitely, for the moment it is not a hve
a very short time the

It is
not
issue for
me,
remember
it
that
will
have no meaning for me, and
Work and in running the httle

hved up
place at "291"
uncompromisingly in
to
12. Letter to
spite
Ward Muir, ^0 January
"291" has been seething with
life
idea of the strenuousness of it
all I
its
work.
You must
terrific sacrifices
made
for
it
by myself
igij.
wiU have done
the positive knowledge that an ideal has been
is
of the
you an
it
my sole pay for the enormous amount of labor entailed in pubhshing Camera
since about the
might
tell
you
middle of December. ...
To
that during the four days last
give
week
got only sixteen hours sleep and the other eighty hours were taken up in intellectual dis-
cussions, a nerve racking physical test but a

treat.
now
Over
and
five
it is
hundred
visitors
came up
most stimulating and invigorating
Marin show during the
to the
one of the most beautiful rooms
195
have ever
seen.
first six
You ought
intellectual
days.
It is
to see the
on
New
York
series as
color and
it is
presented and
movement and
The Walkowitz show was

The big International
am
freshness
you would
sure
of vision
also a
get the keenest
in these delightful
enjoyment from the
and most important Marins.
remarkable one, entirely different from Marin's.
Show of Post Impressionism which is to take place under the direction
of the Society of Painters and Sculptors with Arthur B. Davies at its head has naturally focussed
the peoples attention
upon "291." The work
assumed a deeper significance to the people

this
is
help
naturally very gratifying to
all this
that has
at large
been going on for years has suddenly
than was thought possible a year ago. All
me when I realize with how Httle money and Httle actual

Of course the true spirits, although very few, have so
has been accompUshed.
my work and potential that I do not reaUze the energy expended either physically
intensified
or mentally.
Durijig the big
show of Post Impressionism I
shall exhibit
my own photographs at "291."
will be the logical thing for me to do. So you see I am not forgetting photography and I
am putting my own work to a diaboHcal test. I wonder whether it will stand it. If it does not,
It
it
contains nothing vital.
place
all
Outside of Baron
and doing
of "291"
It
will be the furst
show
that
have ever given myself at the
httle
these years.
it
as
De Meyer, who is
in a masterful fashion,
well as myself.
It is
see
here in
New York very busy photographing society
none of the photographers. They seem
very amusing but fortunately
to steer clear
don't miss them.
Not
because
they are not nice fellows but because they have not developed mentally but have stood
still
during the past six or seven years.
13. "Foreword,"
March
Wanamaker
Exhibition Catalogue, 1913, reprinted in
photo-miniature,
1913.
Photographers must learn not to be ashamed to have their photographs look

graphs.
smudge
tintype. ...
in
"gum"
has
less
like
photo-
value from an esthetic point of view than an ordinary
photographer using photography to do a "stunt," or to imitate painting,
may
amuse those who understand neither the fundamental idea of photography nor the fundamental
idea of painting.
14. Letter to Israel White, 18
...
It is
1913.
true that Kandinsky's picture
very well that
me
March
we
have but very
little
was bought
money and
well enough to realize that there must be
for the httle place at "291."
certainly
some very
196
none
to waste.
definite reason
You
why
You know
inust
knc^w
should have
decided to procure the Kandinsky for ourselves.

sidering the future
the most important feature in the
He is not
on the
showed
why
the master like
wall.
at
the
Picasso.
Armory, and when you come
W.
of view that
con-
is
Now please don't misconstrue my meaning.

over to "291" and see the Picabia's
Come
now
New
shall explain,
undoubtedly to your satisfaction,
York.
Orison Underwood, ^0 April 1914.
money involved,
scription, costs
a certam point
most important demonstration. Picabia has gone way ahead of what he
am sorry that you see fit to
whole show.
Cezaime or
the Kandinsky has been saved for
15. Letter to
the
It is
From
development of a certain phase of painting the Kandinsky was possibly
me
for as
discontinue your subscription.
you know, or ought
to
know,
am
sorry not on account of
for every $8.00
receive for a sub-
approximately $16.00 in cash to furnish the subscriber with "Camera
Work" per year. In other words every cancellation means a saving of $8.00 to me. Therefore,
from
a fmancial point
subscriptions for the
but in your case
of view
ought to be only too glad to fmd so many canceling
same reasons
that
you have. As
like
something that appeared
in
started thirty years ago.
idea that
you were amongst
was doing. In other words
"Camera Work" you
had
felt that
this in
an absolutely
all,
scientific
don't understand, are things which
by
their
am amused at such cancellations,
at least felt that it
that if you did
would not be
the
not
there
not mean a very definite thing in connection with the battle for photography which
trying to estabhsh, once and for
doing
am not amused. I had somehow gotten the
few who had some conception of the work
if it did
a rule
great
mean Uving
for
all
you might have some conception of my methods
the meaning of the idea photography.
way. The things you don't seem to

I
assure
time by
you wiU
live
and
will
in
have proceeded in
like,
and
know you
be considered great and
future generations that have been taught
how
to see.
And possibly the greatest work that I have done during my Ufe is teaching the value of seeing.
And
teaching the meaning of seeing.
When I got out the Rodin Number, I knew in advance that I would lose fifty percent of
the photographic subscribers of "Camera
Work."
did lose fifty percent.
knew my people.
me fi-om doing what I knew was right and important. The

Rodin Number created a sensation amongst those people who are firee and who understand
the highest meaning of art. Rodin himself was amazed what had been accompUshed, how the
book had reflected his spirit. And "Camera Work" through this very number raised the idea
of photography in the eyes of men like Rodin, Maeterlinck and hundreds of others of that
type who saw it. And so they became more interested in photography. And to them photogBut
this
knowledge did not
raphy suddenly assumed a
deter
new meaning. And they began looking

197
[through]
"Camera Work"
and looked
photography and the other
at die
tilings side
by
Thus they could compare
side.
photographic vision and creative vision, both presented in their purest aspect.
Now the Wal-
kowitz drawings that you objected to are comparable to Rodin drawings. Only die name
Walkowitz
I
no
yet has
as
was damned
pioning unknowns like White and Kasebier.
forward
my
every instance that
you have a full

is
And I knew
ever made.
set
intuition
of "Camera
such
tricks,
people's
receive
was
learn to see.
that
is
correct.
whether they
it
why
their
damned
don't
move
jump
at things. If
am
in
not mistaken
refuse to
make
about
a noise
tricks
by
towards "Camera Work."

see or
whether they do not
it. I
refuse to
pubhsh
the people at large.
My test of
can see in the manner in which
see;
or whether they are eager to
photographic
work
is
not developing.
They may be improving
really
vision.
They have no
And where
vision.
beheve in photography. Because a
see.
tech-
photography; they
nically as far as processes are concerned but they are adding nothing to
own
all
praises. I refuse to resort to
its
photographers of this country are not very eager to
who
that
cham-
a fact that the
are adding nothing to their
those photographers
for
would be damned. But time showed
from men known and unknown singing
know as
also
Work" and I regret to see it not completed. "Camera Work"
their attitude
is
was
have been damned for practically every
although they might not be considered
growth
they respond to
And
like Steichen.
in advance that
my hfe blood and I know its value.
the letters
Now there was a time, not so long ago,
universal significance.
championing an unknown
for
man
in the
world are
happens to dabble
now and then with a camera he beheves he knows sometliing about the subject; and he sits in
why should it be different in photography when the same things happen in
judgement. But
every other walk of Hfe. The American has a vote, therefore he thinks he must have an
opinion. Unfortunately he has an opuiion and unfortunately,
The American
vote.
to say
I
this,
for
hope you
because
that
But
Those
I
am
superficial,
have hved
a hfe
and he lacks deeper
which has given
will not misconstrue these lines.
respect you.
16. Letter to
best.
is
W.
who
sometimes think, he has a
as
an American have a right
the opportunity to test and judge.
a matter
of fact
am writing them
to
you
Orison Underwood, 16 December 1914.
as for
And
really
know
many
years,
know
did ten years ago, and twenty years ago, and
tliirty
what "Camera Work" was
have been close to
me
doing today the same thing
years ago.
As
me
feeling.
originally intended for,
and have
known me
think
for a great
the same thing means the development of a very
positive idea.
When pho-
tography does something which shows development and not mere picture making you will
find that
"Camera Work"
will contain such
photography. "Camera
198
Work"
will
never re-
produce paintings and statuary unless these things bear a direct relationship to the idea which
is
being developed.
17. Letter to Frederick B. Hodges, 24
May
igi5.
Of their kind they are above average. But after all is

gum prints, and multiple gum prints they are clever. As
pictures they are attractive to those who do not see much below the surface. As experiments
they undoubtedly mean sometliing to you, and may mean something to those experimenting
...
said
in
have looked
and done, what
gum. From
at
your
pictures.
As
are they?
the point of view of expression, both pictures lack
all
element of hving value.
Of course this will be difficult for you to comprehend,

Either as
what I mean, but it is impossible for me to go into a dissertation on this subject at present.
The ground has been fully covered in Camera Work. It is a vital subject. Of course this is
photographs or anything
looking
at things
The world
more than
is
else.
from the highest point of view. In

full
of pictures and picture makers.
time becomes exceedingly
irritating.
Pictures, to
Otherwise
a superficial agreeableness to them.
only point of view.
fact the
this
have any value must have
something, agreeableness, in
Like everything superficial.
From
the average point of
view, the point of view of the so-called photographic world, and even the academic picture
world, both of your pictures would be considered interesting. In some quarters, especially
the photographic, even beautiful. Personally
in
which the quahties inherent
"stunts" in the world of art.
in
love music too
prefer a straight forward bit
photography are respected and loved.
much
of photography
do not care for
to enjoy Hstening to a violinist trying to
play piano on the viohn; or to a pianist trying to play the violin on the piano. But there are
many people who do like such tricks and who think they care for music. But fortunately there
are not
many
trying to do,
like
why
me
in this part
don't
of the globe.
you frankly
Don't be ashamed of lens work. StUl
feel that if
start painting,
I
or
why
you want
don't
you
to
do what you are
frankly photograph.
repeat as experiments, both prints are interesting; as
achievements, as examples of photographic art or of self-expression, they are not worth
my
while. Such
is
18. Letter to
John G. Bullock, 26 March 1917.
...
It is
opinion.
As for your photographs;
honest work. In most of the
the thing
you
felt. I
do not
"Farm Bell."
Like the
tilings
am conscious
know whether you
It is
good.
understand what
199
And I like "Valley Green."
primarily of photographs, and not of

I
mean by
that,
but perhaps
you
is
will. It
the intensity of feeling expressed
is
a dead tiling,
tually
goes,
it
repells.
no matter
how
Repels because
and very wonderful. But
masterly
it is
it is
... Let
And
have
also
interested in anything
vital. It is
not
attract,
but even-
quahties,
from hfe more than
it
surface
even though few are conscious
do not know. In
too Sioo.oo
is
1917.
that not only
certainly
world any more,
which
is
but the whole Jury of the
I,
do remember you. And
watched your development.
certainly anything but that.
tions
may
first it
like a vaudeville stunt. Allright as far as
sufficient. If one requires
me tell you at this late date,
role in the photographic
At
not
May
Contest, 1916, enjoyed your work.
is
be in
not the technique. Technique
It is
itself.
19. Letter to IVilliamiiia Parrish, S
sister.
may
Uves.
more than surface
quahties and everyone does require
of it.
it
which
You
see
am
And
Wanamaker
remember your
not playing a very great
as it stands for so httle, if
not thoroughly ahve.
also
anything, and
am
not
the photographic world at present
Why do no more good workers enter the Wanamaker Contests?
my opinion because a great many of them are afraid of me as Judge. Then
such a paltry
sum of money to them. They have a
they never had except
Your new work
is
photographs without
in their
finer than
titles.
Titles
own
your
old.
do not
refinement. Possibly just a httle [too]
"reputation" to
Reputa-
lose.
opinions.
There
interest
is
development.
Of course
me. All the enclosed
prints
look
show
at
the
a decided
much consciousness of "picture-making." But each one
own temperament and goes his own way. As for your pictures in New York,
mistaken. The Little Gallery is
I really don't know where they could be shown. No you are
not devoted entirely to the ultra modern in painting and scvdpture. It is devoted to ideas. To
expresses his
the development of such.
That
is
reason
it
would be out of place
20. Letter to
...
is
primarily picture making.
H. C.
Reiner, 11
And
for that
in the Little Gallery.
June
1915.
am in the midst of experimenting along many hnes. The first real chance I have had
in years to
been
And I feel that your work, good as it is,
not adding to the idea of photography, nor to the idea of expression.
do what
my own
want
to
do
in photography. This
master from the Year One. But strange
may seem
as it
may
strange to
sound,
experimenting had to be side-tracked for years, for the bigger work
my
you
as
have
pliotographic
was doing
in fighting
for an idea, fighting practically single handed. This idea has finally taken firm root and so
can allow myself the luxury of doing some of my
21. Letter to R. Child Bayley,
...
firom
back
interrelated.
window
know
intensely honest.
to 128.
22. Letter
whole
series
X lo work.
But everything
All platinum prints.
simplified in spite
at
all
Ut
up looming
rooftops of neighboring houses. Inside the
...
to
think
Not
interiors.
of endless
detail.
in the
of hand work on either
room
looked out. It seemed so
mist & below
the atmosphere
my own window-
was thick there was a
Georgia O'Keeffe, 7 October igi6.
wonder how
I'll
be
when I get back I never was so
httle part
Hartley hates the place because the "people have no soul." It
of N.Y.
fascinated
as I
am now.
me
for years
because of that lack I thought that the huge machine would eventually discover
Wni it? Machines have great souls.
know
it. Have always
be given a chance to show them. People interfere too
24. Letter
to
AU
and quite so
so direct,
is
a trace
291 was quite marvellous to-night as
out there the buUdings
23. Letter
work which
Georgia O'Keeffe, 13 November igi6.
to
sullen face.
intensely direct. Portraits. Buildings
It is
of them, a few landscapes and
No diffused focus. Just the straight goods. On some things the lens stopped
The window
at 291, a
photographic experimenting.
igi6.
nothing outside of Hill's
It is all
negative or prints.
restful
November
have done quite some photography recently.
my
down
own
'iiuch
known
its
soul
it. But they must
& have no
faith.
Georgia O'Keeffe, 22 January igiy.
There are no
stars
awhile at the old back
out to-night. Before
window It
is
I left
291 when
all
was darkness,
more marvellous than ever the new
as I
stood
buildings are
of tenants &
full
all
the
windows were aglow. It would be wonderful
there on a simple cot right
window watch
at the
to spend a night
the lights gradually go out one
by
& then the dawn the sun rises behind

those giants. I was crazy two winters ago to spend a night there & there was a cot there.
one until the buildings
But
stood up as vast silhouettes
never staid. I sent the cot away
25. Letter to Hamilton Easter Field, 16
My New York
New. You
is
the
Spirit
November
of that something
its
outer attractions but for
thine in
1920.
did beginning
it not for
it.
New York of transition. The
never saw the Series
"Canyons" but the
later on.
26. Letter to Georgia O'Keeffe, 31
May
its
in 1892
that endears
deepest
Old gradually
passing into the
and through 1915. Not the
New York to one who really loves
worth &
significance. The universal
igij.
walls
which
& the children's should be in charge of any one else but myself.
the walls must come down & very soon in a few days. So that I am sure they're
Others should move in & build anew.
down.
...
have decided to rip 291 to pieces
after
all I can't bear to think that
its
held your drawings
...
little
didn't
room &
tell
you
enjoyed the job &
The
down
it
No
set
Zoler ripping
the remaining burlap.
enjoyed the destruction &
place looks as if
June 1917.
that this afternoon
ripping
had been raped by the
his
down more
made
shelving in the old
photograph of
him he
enjoyment.-
terrible
Germans!
In his quest first to prove that PHOTOCRAPHVwas an art andsccond to understand

how it was different from other forms of artistic expression, Sticglitz neglected his own work.
With
the exception of the years 1910 and 1915, he
made very few photographs between
the
formation of the Photo-Secession in 1902 and the close of 291 in 1917. But in 1918,
Georgia O'Keeffe arrived in
New York,
Stieglitz
began
years between O'Keeffe's arrival and the opening of
photographed with an intensity unknown in
more photographs than he had
in
all
pictorial
not merely
The Intimate
Gallery in 1925 StiegUtz
with
his heritage
make photographic
abstractions
which he had learned
at 291,
cubist paintings but to translate the tenets
medium of photography,
to create an abstract language
raphy which would be expressive of his subjective
made
combined. More importantly, he
photography. His goal was not just to
copy the look of
to
painting into the
art,
when
most prohfic decade. In the quiet
previous work. In those few years he
his previous years
synthesized the lessons of modem abstract
of symbohst
his
his
of abstract
of form in photog-
state.
28. Letter to R. Child Bayley, g October igig.
...
It is
high time that the stupidity and sham in Pictorial Photography be struck a solar
plexus blow.
The
Photography)
oiling, etc.,
is
rot that
name of ART (and still more imder the name of

Gum & Co., diffused lenses, (ultra) glycerining and
in the
At one time
were of experimental interest and value to the development of expression by
means of photograpliic
work
produced
is
appalling.
for the
processes.
point of view that
is
from
Demachy, Eugene,
Steichen,
the living art value point of
its
is
there in spite of the misapphed means.
equivalents) nor photographs.
of expression. The
irritation.
effect
The one
is
Whatever
The
make
life
aesthetic
done by
some of
prints are neither painting (or
always conscious of the clash between processes

resulting in a great
This the more in proportion to the respect one has for painting and for photog-
thing to accomplish. That
is
if an
is
introduced because right photographing
emotion a
feeling generated by,
experience is to be put into form by photographic means that

to
prints
potential
becomes more and more disagreeable finally
raphy. As a rule the "hand" (manipulation)

difficult
from the
view most of the
those workers have a greater historic value than art value.
them may have
the Viermese, did honest
pictorial expression. But
development of photographic
the
medium do what one feels, to be able to do
intellecttiaUy, in part at
that,
is
bom of,
is
intense
in photography. In short,
one must actuallyJee/ something
least, and the metier, photography in this case,
must become an
inherent part of oneself.

In order to master the metier one must practice and practice and practice Photographing
not painting, retouching as the Master Violinist or Pianist is ever working and working
Vidth his instrument so that
it
may
respond to
his
every emotional and intellectual pulsation
musically as per violin or per piano but never in mixture of the two. If any one tried that,
it
would not be music, but
stunt Vaudevillism.
203
at
sharp,
my
wit's
end my
negatives are perfect that
imtouched very sharp- to
are as
is,
palladium.
want them all
get a print straight which responds to
what
straight,
want
it,
the rub. Everything in the print must be right surface, color, values depth w/iflf that
is
means few photographers reahse Nearly

until
measured hght all these help
human and
gent
after
it is
if
It is
is
ART.
after
depends upon other
factors.
prints are A.I.

I
get that as
reject all
others but what
sometimes do, the print /iVe5
aesthethic requirements.
needs
it
as
badly
as
Nearly
trace
needs
it
easily satisfied and are
here. Really needs
it
mentally a slovenly
photographers, as well as so
all
The photographic crowd hves
Masters the
best
continue[s] to
many
is
are too
painters, are trivial
picture-makers not a
it is
worth while has
Claims of Art won't
do Let
mid beautiful a true photograph.
29. Letter to Paul Strand, 11
all
all
sorts
its
own
it
world
at
all? The
beside the best of the
life Otherwise Well,
seer,
test
Old
don't
want to
make
a perfect
photograph and
if
he
why the resulting photograph will be straight-
as
print
you come
of experiments. No new negatives
much leeway towards what
All
it
right it's Photographers that have given it a black eye.
years ago.
years always trying and trying over
am
world is
or place
August igig.
"fooling" myself into the behef that
it
the photographer
from one of the negatives made
during the
tinier
hang
have been printing again & naturally
am making
manner
to
of Chinese or Egyptians or Greek or the primitive savage Art; if it
hve
happens to be a lover of perfection and a
...
and
in a tinier
as expression,
discourage anyone. Photography is
print
everywhere Photographers
it
lot.
of life. Just a bad rehash, over and over again.
of a photograph's value
still
and try
try and try
my last year's work to every class of inteUi-
i. from each negative. When
It satisfies
work out any method
not a question of photo-meters thermometers-
one will but what I'm
few others too all the
to a
the A.I.
play But
impossible to
It is
wish I could come to London and throw a bomb into the whole photographic community.
It
child's
is
have made the test scientifically- to show
I'm
right
what I want no manipulation 5/rfli^/!/.
get
to produce right results mechanically.
London Platinum and
have been printing some more up here. Paper from
I'm
It
wonder.
to
my mind frequently.
up here.- 1 have fmally

I
guess I've
made 50
prints
again sometimes approaching sometimes
had something
really
is
as yet
satisfactory,
wanted.- But
now
always knowing there was
have the print.- And
in that
working.
need is good material
& relative quiet & know

I
204
can make some respectable plioto-
graphs. I'm
more
was even when
& more amused how few real photographs exist & how lax the standard
...
is
am
virtually
alone I
refuse to
me &
all
so sharp that
many
budge I am
who
at last
photographing againjust to
have seen the work say that
It
a revelation.
it is
No tricks of any kind. No humbug. No sentimentahsm. Not old nor new.

you can
see the [pores] in a
don't feel they are conscious of any
heads
many "artists" rarely a photographer.
Hartmann, 27 April igig.
something vthin
straight.
It is
of photography. Too
Uttle
30. Letter to Sadakichi
satisfy
much
thought a standard had been partially established. There was too
thought of "art" too
&
ears toes hands torsos. It
years.
face & yet
it is
abstract. All say that [they]
medium. It is a series of about

is
100 pictures of one person
the doing of something
had
in
mind
for very
31. Letter to Paul Strand, 26 July 1922.
The
splendid cook remarked yesterday seeing
over her stove,
etc., etc.
were trying to draw the

at
something,
of me
all
"Why, Mr.
last
is
...
have never painted.
enjoys the
different.
are
me
& out drying negatives

& looking so hard, as if you
chase in
working
of that thing digging into
guess
when I go
diat centre's centre.
August 1923.
never
felt
the urge to be a painter, and
numbers of photographs which
really enjoy a Ufe
maybe that is why

of
their
have
own. Everyone
the occasional portrait. But my photography is

A classical reahty- direct an understanding of the Hfe of nature
work of HiU. Cameron produced
Sometliing new.
an endless field. And
step by
you
ounce out of the place!" Not bad for a cook!
in the centre
32. Letter to Heinrich Kiihn, 15
created endless
Alfred,
step.
the
means are simple but
205
it
means work, work, and
stiU
more work
Shenvood Anderson, 15 August 1923.
33- Letter to
There
a reality so subtle that
is
down
trying to get
a similar thing
it
becomes more
& are working at it in your way as
34. Letter to Herbert ].
real
than reahty. That's what I'm
photography. That's not juggling with words. I
in
work
out in
it
my way.
feel
.
Seligmmm, g August 1923.
off needless controversy. Photography can catch the essence of the
cannot do
as
synthetical in his choice
is
is
not greater.
thing like that
It is
apt to start
if
the
of the moment he does something which the painter
down when he
different in kind. It appeals
more
is
is
moment. And
weU. He achieves a sense of reahty, an exactness of reahty, a
reahty than the painter can put
are after
... As for photography emphasizing "line" without further development
photographer
you
synthesizes.
more
What
diiferent
kind of
the photographer achieves
to the consciousness
of to-day. Some-
to the point than the idea of line, for the photographer
the sense of the above works with relationsliip of spaces achieving hne,
etc.,
who works in
etc. In short
he deals with problems related to those of the painter the basic urge towards "art" being
identical or
work on
35.
very nearly related. This
"How
Came
to
aU very hastily jotted
Photograph Clouds"
PHOTOGRAPHY,
As for the cloud
Last
is
for yourself to introduce as an idea.
series
my
to
perhaps
it
will interest
you how
that
came about.
manuscripts were sent in by the various contributors for the issue of
Frank one of America's young
over
you something
amateur photographer and
the pubhcation, "JVI.S.S." devoted to photography, and
secret
give
jp September 1923.
summer when
he beheved the
down to
power
in
hterary hghts, author of
my
its
aesthetic significance,
"Our America,"
etc.
Waldo
wrote
photography was due to the power of hypnotism
that
had
sitters, etc.
was amazed when
scenes the
trees,
read the statement.
wondered what he had
to say about the street
interiors and other subjects, the photographs of which he had admired so
much: or whether he
felt
they too were due to
my
powers of hypnotism. Certainly a lax
sutement coming from one professing himself profound and

enlightening.
206
fair tliinking,
and interested
in
happened
It
that the
same morning
in
which
read
contribution
this
(lawyer and musician) out of the clear sky announced to
how one as supposedly musical as
me
my brother-in-law
he couldn't understand
that
could have given up entirely playing the piano.
him and smiled-and I thought: even he does not seem to understand. He

The viohn takes up no space: the piano does. The piano needs looking after
at
by
etc. I
simply couldn't afford a piano, even
when
was supposedly
looked
plays the viohn.

a professional,
was not merely
rich. It
question of money.
Thirty-five or
more
years ago
experimenting with ortho
plates.
spent a
few days
Clouds and
in
Murren
(Switzerland), and
their relationship to the rest
clouds for themselves, interested me, and clouds which

were most difficult to
nearly impossible. Ever since then clouds have been in
and
knew
always
I'd
clouds. Studied them.

said
foUow up
Had
annoyed me: what
the experiment
my
35 years ago.
unusual opportunities up here on
my
summer's photographmg, trying to add to
my knowledge,
this hillside.
brother-in-law said also annoyed me.

to the
was
work
at times,
always watched
What
Frank had
in the midst
I
was
photograph-
mind most powerfully
made over
of the world, and
of my
had done. Always
evolvmg-always going more and more deeply into hfe-into

photography.
My mother was dymg. Our estate was going to pieces. The old
kept ahve by the 70-year-old coachman.
I,
horse of 37 was being

fuU of the feehng of to-day: aU about me dis-
integration-slow but sure: dying chestnut trees-aU the

chestnuts in this country have been
dying for years: the pines doomed too-diseased: I,
poor, but at work: the world in a great
human being a queer animal-not as digmfied as our giant chestnut

tree on the hill.
So I made up my mind I'd answer Mr. Frank and my
brother-in-law. I'd finaUy do something I had in mind for years. I'd make a series
of cloud pictures. I told Miss O'Keeffe of my
ideas. I wanted to photograph clouds to find
out what I had learned in 40 years about photogmess: the
raphy. Tlirough clouds to put
were not due
to subject
down my
matter-not to
philosophy of hfe-to show that
my
photographs
special trees, or faces, or interiors, to special

privileges,
clouds were there for
everyone-no tax as yet on them-free.

began to work with the clouds-and it was great
excitement -daily for weeks. Every
time I developed I was so wrought up, always beheving
I had nearly gotten what I
was after
-but had failed. A most tantaHsmg sequence of days and weeks.
I knew exactly what I was
after. I had told Miss O'Keeffe I wanted a
series of photographs which when seen
by Ernest
Bloch (the great composer) he would exclaim: Music!
music! Man,
So
why that is music! How
did
you ever do
enthusiasm, and
would
bussy's but much,
And when
what
said I
And
that?
he would point to viohns, and
say he'd have to write a
flutes,
and oboes, and
brass,
fuU of
symphony caUed "Clouds." Not hke De-
much more.
finally
wanted
to
had
my
series
often photographs printed, and Bloch saw them-
happen happened
verbatim.
Straight photographs, aU gasUght paper, except
207
one paUadiotype.
in the
power of
every photographer of
40 years
It's
this
all
year that
time, and
I
had
satisfied I
learnt
something during the 40
Now if the cloud series are due to my powers of hypnotism I plead "Guilty."
when
"Pictorial photographers"
My
cloud pictures.
can't be art.
aim
is
looked
at
sees,
them.
36. Letler to
if
photographs look
I've
My
one
wonder
had no
if that
is
37. Letter
seen
At any
everyone will never forget them having once
November
1^23.
songs anything you wish
been crazily
to call them.
of N.Y. rushing
mad with work fun some

I
have some things that are
upstairs to see
them." Well, I'm not
Hart Crane, 10 December 192J.
I'm most curious to see what the "Clouds" will do to you. About
them Men, Women,
& forget
I
to
that unless
clear.
truly fine. Georgia says "you'U have aU

.
still
tinie for reading because I've
great sky stories or
in their eyes they therefore
my photographs look so much like photographs
make
Sherwood Aiiderson,
desirous of that.
photographs and
like
they won't be seen and

I
Girls
& young fellows, artists & laymen
photography entirely .Several people
rate
know
say nothing.
exactly what
They merely
feel
shown
are
have photographed.
of the so
really abstract in
all
six
people have
are affected greatly
have photographed God.
May be.
the pictures.
know
have done something that has never
been done. May be an approach occasionally [found] in music I
more of the
Only some
they came to the exhibition seemed totally blind to the
they had the shghtest idea of art or photography or any idea of hfe.
increasingly to
has eyes and
As
also
know
that there
representations
now. I have a scientific proof to show
the correctness
called abstract so fashionable

is
really a
wonder instrument if you give
it its
chance.
38. Letter to J. Dudley Johnston, 3 April 1925.
is
some "representation" than in most of the dead
of that statement. The camera
years.
began in Berlin with Vogel.
My photographs are ever bom of an inner need an Experience

208
of Spirit.
do not make
"pictures," that
have a vision of hfe and
is I
never was a snap-shotter in the sense
try to find equivalents for
because of the lack of inner vision amongst those
It's
but few
true
photographers.
The
spirit
I feel
Cobum is. I
sometimes in the form of photographs.
it
who
of my "early" work
photograph that there are

the same spirit of
is
my
really
"later"
Of course I have grown, have developed, "know" much more, am more "conscious"
I am trying to do. So what I may have gained in form in maturity I may
work.
perhaps of what
have
is
lost in
art or
no
39. Letter to
On
another direction. There

art.
There
is
no such thing
as progress
or improvement in
art.
There
nothing in between.
Sherwood Anderson, 28 November 1923.
Sunday
how we
have seen
is
we
had a day of days a blizzard snow knee high.
enjoyed
wandering about in the
it.
All day out of doors.
photographing
And you
like possessed.
should
O'KeefFe
woods &
ourselves to the post office
rushing down to the Lake AH awonder & we marched

& enjoyed everything every step Beauty everywhere Nothing
but Beauty-
White- White White &

them.
&
soft
clean & maddening shapes the whole world in
And curiously enough at the post ofBce there was an unusually big mail for me. Letters
from London,
fironi
Alps letters
the Austrian
Germany firom New York all hap-
firom
pened to be very white from very white people. Wonderful lettersseveral of much
nificance to
years
me.
It
was
And
a rare day.
O'Keeffe was
as
happy and
sig-
beautiful as the day. For
& years I had been hoping for a day in Lake George like that one. Truly a dream lived
I stood watching the bams & trees & ground & hills
The moon came out clear &
the
sky an unbeHevable
never forget the bams that

that
was
as if it
could have understood
40. Letter to
The
David
Gosh what
dignity.
a small thing
man
is
with
saw in the moonlight. Talk about the Sphinx
bam nothing could be
was
his capers.
I'll
& pyramids there
grander The austere dignity of it. Flooded with light It
me if I had spoken to it. Perhaps it heard my SUence
Liehovitz, 24 June ig24.
old lone chesmut
truly a heroic figure.
Maybe
on
I'U
the upper Hill
be able to get
to get
down what
some
respects an impossible one.
/see. Photographing in
.
it
still
stands there but has completely
dovm. Most
my sense is
209
diificult.
trying.
It's
died
For years I've hoped
an obstinate medium. In
Sherwood Anderson, 5 July 1925.
41. Letter to
...
have been looking for years 50 upwards at a particular sky
how can I
the
tell
love to get
world in words what
down what
last
few
years.
as
line
of simple lulls
does every moment.
it
me May be I have somewhat in
I'd
those
Sherwood Anderson, 7 August 1924.
42. Letter to
is changing
that line
"that" line has done for
snapshots I've been doing the
...
have been very busy
them
trying to get
on
right
all
week
tinkering with a lot of small (tiny) prints (old
their respective
A trying ordeal for
mounts.
the eyes.
& new)
It's
some-
times the toughest part of the picture making. I've been months sometimes solving such a
problem.
One
tiny print
months
at
it
placing
&
could see the difference between right
organically functioning as
everything
is
enjoy
with a broad cahn
itself
So
a sheet of paper! Fussing?

feel.
one. It's a joy when
No.
release
does. Life
it
of
wish you
spirit
itself
when
seems to
me is written. Of course I'm very happy to have you feel the

know I've meant quite a httle to many not only painters & pho-
about me.
tographers but to scientists
"common"
people
& musicians & all the rest. But perhaps I've meant the most to
meet casually & have met
since
was
And yet as I look back I know I haven't been able to

had to give
a kid.
"give" but a fraction of what
& so wished to give For to me truly being just what
giving all Light with
truly
The
the dedication to
way you do
the
grin.
on
it
not right. In the
all its
many
significance. I've given
fought their battles & created opportunities for them. Yes,
& done &
all is
said
And
perhaps that
mean something
looked
may
to
at the
sky
& lulls
be a "Uving" thing to
feel I've
feel. I
one
is is
a chance to
know
all that.
done nothing
at
truly receiving
be & have
yet when
And
all am nothing.
do know every hving and "dead" soul
its glory its pain. And if I can make a photome perhaps that's all the "tangibihty" I have a right to hope for.
of a time with printing. Eastman has gone back on his own stan-
me. Each moment has
graph hold some of that for
And I'm
dard.
The
having a
such a degree
is
hell
stock I've been using manufactured

I
am beside
myself.
by him has
The war took away
responsible or the system. Finally out of sheer despair
paper
as a basis for all
deteriorated in the last
a paper
I
month
to
used for 31 years! Eastman
felt I'd
use Eastman's postal card
my work. That at least would pay him & was "common" enough
had been using platinotype for 30 years- I'd turn
it
into a hving tiling of beauty to "prove"
my case!
And so the prints of the last few years came to pass &
all
marvelled
how
"postal card"
paper could be turned into such beauty! Poor innocent postal card paper.
And
so
came
my negatives hoping to make at least one thousand prints for I didn't

know would again get the chance. And most of my prints exist only in one example. Above
eager to get another set of my "sky songs." And when I started printing I found to
all was
my dismay that the Kodak people had changed the stock of the postal card using an inferior
up here
tliis
year with
I
stock & had changed the image completely a gray superseding

replacing a sparkling white. It
knows murder comes
is
enough
is
happy owning Fords
movies of which Eastman has the film monopoly
why
a rich
black a
dirty white
human. And no redress. God
into one's blood. These feelingless people
& the "help"
as there are dividends
to kill a sensitive
do not understand. As long
& Victrolas & Radios & can go to
the Hell should any one care about
quahty of a postal?
So
I'm slaving once more, trying to "adapt" myself knowing only too well by the
time I've evolved some

living
by
instilling
it
way of turning
with
standard a httle lower for the

all
horrible.
their really
impoverished product into something
my own Ufe blood these monsters will be ready to sink their own
good
people &
of the
for the bonuses
The search for and definition of America

thought and
of their workmen!
It's
art
of many American writers and
that the cataclysmic destruction
the doininance of Europe.
of the
was an
issue
the 1920s.
artists in
It
which dominated the

was
a prevalent
beUef
World War had hberated American culture from
First
"We are Uving in the first days of a renascent period,"
the editors
o^ Seven Arts optimistically proclaimed in 1916, "a time which means for America the coming
of that national self-consciousness which
is
and Waldo Frank, "Editorial," Seven Arts
Anderson, William Carlos WiUiams,

thur Dove, and StiegHtz considered
like
many of the
cultural critics
American soul would be

stead,
[1916], 52).
Waldo
it
from
their
spirit
work of American
Sherwood
Van Wyck Brooks, Ar-
And he
will find that
artists
soul.
Un-
and
depicting the American scene. In-
would be understood only when enough
your people" ("America and the Arts," Seven Arts

ardently defended the
as
however, StiegHtz did not beHeve that the
by studying or
individual Americans had expressed themselves.
you
such
artists
duty to reveal the collective American
he thought that the collective American
wrote, "Give voice to your soul, and
Writers and
Frank, Paul Rosenfeld,
this period,
disclosed simply
Oppenheim
the beginning of greatness" (James
agreed with
Romain RoUand who
you have given
[1916], 49). This
writers, so that they
chance to express themselves and thereby reveal the American
spirit.
birth to the soul

is
why
of
StiegHtz so
might be given the
43- Letter
Hart Crane, 27 July ig2j.
to
This country is uppermost in
much
trying
my mind What it really signifies what it is I am not

my results that way. Of course to understand any-
analysis I do not arrive at
thing one must endeavor to have one's inner house in order without becoming Self-conscious.
is
The
knowing
that
the
am
pubhc the
real
to
pubUc If I am my own pubhc then I know there
to get a cold in the bargain.
you
again and that notlung will stop
can he completed 2iS contracted for. Yes,
But
France [more] than
do.
you have
But when the world
why
why
I'm really fighting for Georgia. She
American
thing
mean
sometliing
me
continued
is
Haven't
an America. Are
we
only a marked
we any of our own courage
and there
is
is
not
pubUc
by
this
time you are under
completed.
it's
must fce and
It
so important:
No
America
one respects
strenuously hate the idea quite
or "Prussian." I'm glad you have
my fight
American. So
Of course
all!
is
is
than
single-handed at
Marin. So
is
usually
am
I.
made
291 That's
Of course by
understood if any-
the world must be considered as a whole in
But
the final analysis. That's really a platitude so self-imderstood.

isn't there
sick all these years.
to be France
is
that
book
much more comprehensive
usually understood at
is
if unseen.
struck it why
much as if the world were to be made "American"
the discovery for yourself. That's
hope
until the
without that damned French flavor! It has made
as
even
will appear
know
really
Paul RosenfeU, 5 September ig23.
Too bad you had

full sail
photographers, for instance, that
of a pubUc they are thus se//^conscious
voicing which pubhc eventually
44. Letter
&
trouble with most writers painters
that while producing they are conscious
down
thereis
America. Or
bargain day remnant of
in matters "aesthetic"?
Europe?
Well, you are on the true track
fun ahead.
45. Letter to Sherwood Anderson, 10 December 1925.
...
him
A Frenchman asked me yesterday what I was really doing. I asked if the Room made
feel particularly
Dove's.
lery.
aUve. He was
He said nothing abroad
The
pictures
all
aglow.
was Uke
would scU and
all that.
it. I
He
should
told
had asked to see Georgia's work and
come over
him
the Soil
at once.
He'd get the Gal-
was here- the planting was
here the growing where
the planting in the Soil right here.
with the Clouds. And
guess that's
As
myself I was playing
for
my reaHty Always was &
will be.
46. Letter to Sherwood Anderson, 11 October 1924.
Yesterday afternoon
Ustening to the
formed
that
it
as I
was the
last
for the mail the drugstore
in the
box
My
Washington
in the final tie after
moments Washington
.
Well, Anderson,
fmal inning's result
reading your
book
two games
final
for the
game Gosh!
in the spirit in
was wondering would
palpitating?
with Villagers
when
was
the twelfth.
team and
talk
in-
The
all
the
about breath-
which
hstened for that
read pages
hardly get the story (of course

Spirit
& pages
I
get
it)
running through the whole book
crowd of Americans ever
value with a fraction of the enthusiasm spent
genuine so
came
& look at the skies & watch the Hills & their life
it's
so
lost
tliis
& over again with intense joy

but
the spirit that soaks into me & I think the
very wonderful & very beautiful.
I
still
vidns!
am
of the book over
...
filled
for years. Just a feeling. Yes, years, and here
having
U.S.A. rooting for him. Johnston called in to win

less
was
heart nearly stood
half of the 11th inning tie. And then
suspense. I've been rooting for
was Johnston
went
Radio baseball. Wasliington.
stand before a picture of real
on baseball. Or read a real book with enthusiasm
47. Letter to Dorothy Brett, 2 July 1937.
...
I still
insist
Art has no
real place in this
God's Country. There
is
more
talk than ever
about Art more lectures more teachers more Museums & yet ye gods. As the Swami
said the other
written This
Heaven
all
day in talking with me: The Americans. Well
Way
and
Heaven
&
another over which
is
if there is a
written:
Americans will go to the lecture That puts
The 1930s were

writers,
to
it
he had
known
in the
door over which
Way
to a Lecture
close associations with artists,
1920s and before were replaced by
sohtary Hfe which lasted until his death in 1946.
213
The
is
on
in a nutshell.
a difficult time for Stieglitz. The
critics that
The
more
optimistic search for and cultivation of
the American spirit which had characterized the
was replaced,
ciates in the 1920s
for
him
work of Stieghtz
at least,
by
him
tinued to photograph until poor health forced
as
well as that of his asso-
He
a dark pessimism in the 1930s.

to stop in 1937, but
con-
work changed
liis
markedly: the more romantic clouds of the 1920s were replaced by the cool and impersonal
skyscrapers of
sheen
New
unknown
in
York
liis
City,
and the photographs themselves took on
earher work.
Whether
in his studies
the landscape of Lake George, through his photography Stieghtz
trying to order
Stieghtz
the chaos he
he had
felt that
need for them to integrate

the
artist's
a hard, metalhc
of the buildings of New York or
was constantly ordering or
about him.
felt
failed:
he had not been able to make Americans
and he had
art into their hves;
one and only responsibihty was to
his
failed to
see the pressing
make Americans
own self-expression. The
see that
Depression was a
hard time to champion any type of art that was not "socially responsible," but Stieghtz did
not deviate from
his
During
his last years
work of O'Keeffe,
chosen path and continued to exhibit the abstract
Marin, and Dove. But by the
late 1930s,
he frequently wrote
old and in poor health, he was tired of the fight.
that,
much to his
was
pleasure, the gallery
deserted:
"With all due respects to you artists," he wrote Dove, "the Place looks best when the ceilings,
floors,
The
and walls have just been freshly painted.
austerity
48. Letter
to
and clean feehng are
August 1940, Arthur Dove Papers, A A a).
Sherwood Anderson, g December 1925.
New York
madder than
is
don't seem to be of New

a
When even no one has stepped on the floor !
refresliing" (26
while may be
all
ever.
The pace
ever increasing. But Georgia
York nor of anywhere. We hve high up in the
winter The wind howls
& shakes
the
huge
steel
&
somehow
Shelton Hotel for
frame We
feel as if
we were out at midocean AU is so quiet except the whid & the tremblijig shaking hulk of
steel in which we Hve It's a wonderful place
And Room 303 is equally wonderful. You'd hke it. It's very real and has a sense of
space a reserve power,
is
amazed
at
what
still all
has been
Youngsters from the Far West

vellous.
The room
being- Marin is a
surprised that
gives
great
them
the ahveness and movingness of the streets Everyone
done There
all
many coming I
are not
seem very happy
a chance to be. There
in the atmosphere.
is
no artinessJust
person greater than even I had
should be making
this
in the air.
That
I felt
The Marins
a
coming
want many.
are
mar-
throbbing pulsating
realized. I told a dealer
who seemed
new "experiment" I had no choice that there were
things called fish and things called birds. That fish seemed happiest in
happy
don't
the dealers damn
thing but kill had prepared their galleries
them
may
214
water &
for they feel nothing
birds
seemed
& so can't do any-
be for fish certainly not for
birds.
That
loved water but loved
would
create an
In
I
short
Marin
is
myself am such
often
perhaps
such a bird Georgia
one &
so are
wondered were you
photographic magazines or meeting
many others free
is
that ages
are also greater than ever.
You
ask
its
what
my attitude
Don't you reahze
it
My
living standard.
or found in
it is
it.
To
thinks.
rooted in
its
out for yourself.
every
let
The Place is
is
such a thing. ...
road has become a jealous guardian of me. That's
few
Lamb, 3 March
You want me
you
to
say
tell
stray
But don't
is
pretense and ignorance and self-complacency
moment
vital
am
even
there
centre. There are no exhibi-
chose
is
with-
if deserted.
to
left in
pictures.
you know I hate the

the world.
Or
does
my road years ago & my
it.
1938.
you what
you were
all
trying to
actually live
a Living Centre
hate the very idea of what's called Exhibition. Don't
51. Letter to Beatrice
any
when conditions
of exhibitions elsewhere. There are no pictures just because of

I
at
humility before photography
Man can't you figure it
is.
our Country not recognize that there
know you are- as
dam what anyone
very idea of what's called a Picture. Is there no idea of nobihty
poUtical matters
to
gave up looking
1933.
out any ism or any fashion or cult attached to
tions in the sense
highest to sustain a
Everything connected with
ago
continue to photograph
with super-aloofness.
Adams, 7 December
50. Letter to Ansel
sustain life at
CharUe Chaplin, Eisenstein &
I still
And my hatred of sham and
greater than ever.
my things tortured into bad reproduction I seek
don't exhibit I don't have
filled
men of the so-called photographic world or ever going
neither glory nor fame, in fact don't give a tinker's
imagine I'm conceited and
souls.
"here"- I'm glad
called
must confess
photographers occasionally drop in to see me.

I
chance-
to give birds a
1933.
what
I
so
to any of their worse than stupid exhibitions.
permit but
had decided
one
is
you &
stiU
& Judges & Photography
for Chicago
more That
still
Henry Emerson, 9 October
49. Letter to Peter
...
air
atmosphere for birds that flew hghter than sparrows
to
clear.
do about your writing. When you wrote about
What you wrote had

215
"legs."
And now what you
have been writing you say

legless fragments.
is
May be those are "legs"

the intense subjective
takes an artist to
you
do
you
there even tho'
down
so subtle that getting "it"
It
"legless" And you don't seem capable of finding legs for those
Should you stop writijig because of that.

is
say
"not" Go
right ahead.
to "give"
is
very different from writing on pohtical matters. It
is
down
are trying to put
that.
not. What you have
feel there are
an
in
ohjective
form. That
is
most
difficult.
52. Letter to James T. Soby, ig January 1942.
You seem
milHon, all
to
assume that a photograph
prints firom
one of a dozen or a hundred or maybe
is
along comes one print that really embodies something that you have to say that
elusive,
made
something that
is still
something not based on a
intangible while the mechanical

intangible,
what would be
of mine, then I might just

mechanically.
You might
is
trick. It
is
What
something
And
spiritual
have no objection to
For
I feel,
and
It is
about
life is
but
am
this
not in a print
a print
would not contain
that
needed to bring forth a

is
simply
assuming that you have in
life-giving, sometliing inspiring.
whether you are aware of
it
or not,
it is
message you are desirous of sending to the soldiers in the camps.
itself.
se
is
But the very
might be contributed
respect for
not creative in
fact that
you
to a collection
nor
itself,
painting, nor water-coloring, nor
writing a book necessarily a creative
is
to
show
responsible for a prmt
to the soldiers,
which
shows complete
dis-
what the creative photographer may have produced. You would not dare approach
of Modem Art
as
manner.
you do, you
felt that
say this as
if the prints in transit
And
if so,
that, representing the
the collection of
examples.
battered and filthy, will they
won't what you are desiring to do, or
216
assume
at least as potential art
become damaged and
be completely negated? Please do not assume that
you were looking upon
photographs you are planning to send to the camps
circulated?
oU
is
Nor
you cannot be
say that
you wish
a first-class self-respecting painter in this
And
essentials
Something
illustrations.
a spiritual message.
Photography per
Museum
feel
A print lacking these elements
illustrations,
etching, nor lithography, nor wood-engraving.

act in
get wonderful pictures as a result, but they
mind something more than mere

Something with
that this print has?
any machine can take a picture and turn out
as well say that
Hving print or any other hving creative expression.

illustration.
is it
might send did not have
out? If what
it
something called love or passion, both of which are the
an
subtle
bom out of spirit, and spirit is an
tangible. If a print that
the value of sending
is
when shown with a thousand mechanically
a straight print, but
something that the others don't have.
prints has
certainly
one negative necessarily being ahke and so replaceable. But then
want
to
still
be
assume you are desiring to do,
have prints treated
as
something
more
precious than
life itself. I
or they should not be shown
good photographs, which
do not. But
at
retain
all.
you show
either
Wouldn't
some of the
the prints in a hving condition,
be better to send around reproductions of
it
of the
spirit
originals, than original prints
which
are neither fish nor fowl?
Now as far as I am concerned,

send you nothing
is
at all.
would
dominate the American world
so apt to
subscribe to, but hate with
of hate.
either send
The "good enough," which

in so
the hate within me.
all
is
many
I
hate
you
the best
am
able to produce or
nearly a reHgion in our country and

phases of our
all half-tliings,
life, I
not only cannot
otherwise
am devoid
For more than half a century, StiegHtz devoted himself to the medium of photogown work indeed he frequently allowed it to come
raphy. His aim was not to advance his
second to his other interests but to understand the expressive potential of photography and
to foster a wider appreciation of the
medium. Even during
53. Letter to J.
Dudley Johnston, 15 October
When I read some of the lectures
invariably get the itch to pack

are decent sort but have
that does not
lectures
up
health cur-
1923.
given everywhere on the art side of photography
& go wherever
it
no knowledge of to-day.
& answer these men who really

They speak a dead language. A language
might be
A half dozen real pictures will do more to stir
stir.
when poor
the 1930s,
photography" did not diminish.
tailed his activities, StiegUtz's passion for "the idea
up
than
vital interest
all
the
& books in the world. And vital interest seems to be sadly lacking amongst photog-
raphers of the world to-day.
Unfortunately the War has turned me into a

the world
would have me.
wish
had been.
poor man.
Much would
never was the wealthy
man
be different in the photographic
world.
have
all
but killed myself for Photography.
forty years that
have fought
money if need be.
It is
own
photographs
have some
is
feeling for
riot.
fight and
not photographs it
never sign.
what
Camera Work mad.
run
its
I'll
is
All that's
is
bom
to
for. It's a
of
passion for
it is
not photographers I
am not fighting
the fight
My
greater than ever.
fight to the finish single
spirit
217
make
handed
It's
& without
am fighting for. And my
"name"
for myself.
Maybe you
world's fight. This sounds mad. But so
seems
mad
in these [days]
of materialism
Coomaraswamy, 14 February
54- Letter to Atianda
you know
... As
I
it's
just
began consciously to work
40 years ago
1924.
my photography & over 35 years since

When I began I had no idea
began
of photography.
at the "liberating"
how diiiicult that would be. Had no idea that the Walls of Prejudice seemed to grow in direct
proportion
as I
was demonstrating
that
on & am still fighting. The Walls

the scientific sense of the
to-day?
tography
as
Can
If
it
Many
rare.
photograph. But aren't
an ideal
ran into the
world & good

significance.
its
To estabHsh & then try to
So
destroy what
&
1,000
Edward Weston, 3 September
first class
workroom
to
work
8X10
negatives.
artists fare in
m properly! If
invited encounter.
had estabUshed
home of your own
if it
moved ahead
ever
could be destroyed.
You
have
were an envious nature
many years ahead of you
have travelled about 12,500 miles.
York I
have never owned a
And
woman
Shelton where O'Keeffe and
American
My photographic apparatus
is
to
to continue
ness. Lots
your good
and stupid. I
fear
all
photography. Swell technically.
his
have not
30 years.
30-40 years old. You see I do sound
I'm an old man.
He knows
work In the last
faciUties in
25
New
All
218
an
& biUions of photographs made
be. "Interesting" shots. Its a pathetic
any print. Lots of clever-
May
And
ye gods,
be have been an "old
pretend to be anything that

metier
like
55 years without a camera.
innocence and ignorance.
many years. I like Adams work for it doesn't
envy you.
home on The Hill or out of the
true seeing.So httle inness in
of imitation of imitation. In
"effects" banale
certainly
Uved for 12 years or out of the window of An
be miUions on miUions of photographers
little
would
photographic
how rare a really fine photograph seems to
situation. So Httle vision. So
25,000 miles in a year.
overlooking the Pacific
rehc I am full of photography but here I am the first time in
annually but
of your heart- Yes you are a for-
50 yards of tliis
window of The
Yes there seems
those miles between Lake George and
home nor have I had
my photographic work has been done in this

Place.
my make up. And in all your good fortune
mentioned that in November you will marry the
years
any
1938.
And
But fortimately envy has never been in
tunate man.
fought
hard up against it I had to analyse
You are a fortunate man. But you have earned your good fortune.
And
an addition in
is
couldn't something of value in the sense of addition had been estabUshed.
55. Letter to
old
own. But
Photography
quantity production as an ideal produce quahty? In trying to estabHsh pho-
every encounter to understand

as a scientist.
of its
virtues
word addition. It doesn't kill anything that has ever contained soul.
Unfortunately photographers are very

field
Photography had
are begirming to crumble.
tricks
man"
it isn't. It's
& doesn't fool himself
&
for
honest
wonder
will
you and I
ever meet again.
doubt
my ability to come West or really to go anywhere "far"
from the source. Fortunately I'm growing stronger

constantly torment me. Sometimes
many beUeve me
I'm writing.
No
wonder
beckoning. It's a great
fights on. Life ever
yet
is
gift
Ufe
physically but
worth the
Life. Cynicism
cynical and jealous. I wdsh
you could
haven't a trace of cynicism in me.
And
Jealous of photography. Waldo Frank some years ago
dead
I'U write
I'm dead. But
photography
your biography."
all I
said was:
in the guise
Frank
of a
to her the
56. Letter to
is
see the
as
woman &
is
to be Mrs.
Thomas H. Benton, 2 January
me
broad grin on
I
as
envy
my face as
am jealous.
me: "Stieghtz when you are
simple
affair. If
& why wait
till
you can imagine
you'd ask her what she thought of StiegUtz, she'd

I
said to
Frank
is
my biography.
my thanks for your splendid letter. My most cordial
woman who
somehow one
foreign to
as for jealousy, yes
said to
my biography will be a
He always treated me as a gentleman. That

why I am jealous of photography.
Well dear Weston
have ailments wluch
wondered how much he knew about me
say:
and
torture, but
Weston
in
So you
greetings to
see
you
November.
1935.
When finally I am to be judged I think I'll have to be judged by my ovra photographic
work, by Camera Work, by the way
I've
Uved and by the way
have conducted a
Selected and edited hy
Sarah Greenough
219
of
series
interdependent demonstrations in the shape of exhibitions covering over forty years.
Notes
The abbreviations
sources for Stieglitz's
used
when
two
collections.
place
listed
letters.
below
Two
a letter, either the original or a
The
from which
noted
city
copy,
after the date
is
is
in
the
StiegUtz wrote the letter.
summer of 1894
In the
indicate archival
abbreviations are
rope for the
the 1890s, including
Gamin
Venetian
(no. 4)
also
and
Gutach and
many award- win-
provided him with
'
6) later called
Center for Creative Photography, The
Adams
The
Little
The
tall
lines
of bricks and windows
New York
em, urban
Ufe
modem
to disturb,
later
it
had "no
rectangular
no
railroads
such obvious symbols of mod-
were among
his favorite subjects. See,
The Hand of Man, 1902
for example.
(no. 15) or
The
1902 (exh. 31).
Flat-iron,
Collection of Lotto Schonitzer-Kuhn, Tirol,
because
artists
factory buildings with their
only a few years
York,
(exh. t8).
with smoky locomotives to dim the pure atmosphere,"
Hart Crane Papers, Columbia University
New
(no.
Katwyk
Although Stieghtz hailed Gutach as an exceptional

spot for photographers and
Center for Creative Photography,
Library,
Milk Maid, Early Morn
{Gutach) (no. 2), Gossip -
and Scurrying Home
(exh. 17),
Archive, University of Ari-
izona, Tucson, Arizona
Austria
Sherwood Anderson
Papers,
berry Library, Chicago,
RPS
D.C.
Paul Strand Collection, University of Ar-
NL
this trip that
ning photographs, including Gutach Peasant Girl (no.
zona, Tucson, Arizona
LS-K
was during
Archives of American Art, Washington,
Ansel
cu
Eu-
Berlin in 1890
the Boulevard - Paris (exh. 8).
3), Sunlight Effect
ccp/ps
It
left
he made some of his most celebrated photographs of
Katwyk
CCp/aa
Stieglitz returned to
time since he had
end of his schooling.
at the
Wet Day on
AAA
first
The New-
The Royal Photographic
2.
"A
Plea for Art Photography
graphic MOSAICS
Illinois
The Joint
in
photo-
America,"
28 {i8g2), 135-137.
Exhibition was a show, patterned after
Society, Bath,
the exhibitions at the Royal Photographic Society in
England
London, held annually from 18S4
UCR
Sadakichi
Hartmarm
Papers, University
of California, Riverside, Library, River-
adelphia, the Society of
side, California
New York,
This
YCAL
Alfred Stieglitz Archive, Collection of
American Literature, Beinecke RareBook

and Manuscript Library, Yale University,
New
Haven, Cormecticut
article
was
American
Amateur Photographers of
StiegUtz's first published attack
what he considered
pictorial
photography. His praise of simple
compositions and atmospheric
in Berlin in the 1880s
Stieglitz's
and one of
effects, as
well as his
statement that sharp outlines are "untrue to Nature,"
" Two Artists' Haunts," with Louis H. Schubarl, PHO1

TOGRAPHIC TIMES 26 (January 1895), g-12.
the
on
to be the impoverished state of
son's (1856-1936) theory
mate
imder the
and the Boston Camera Club.
clearly indicates the influence
Louis Schuban (1870-1927) was
to 1894
rotating auspices of the Photographic Society of Phil-
room-
his partners in
Photochrome Engraving Company in
New York
as
demonstrated both in
book,
his
photographs and
in his
Naturalistic Photography for Students of the
(1889).
book
of Peter Henry Emer-
of naturalistic photography
Emerson,
into
to 1895. In 1892 Schubart married Stieg-
don) for
litz's sister
Selma.
This was
asked Stieglitz to translate
German, awarded him
contest sponsored
from 1890
who
his
first
Art
this
prize in an 1887
by the Amateur Photographer (Lon-
photograph
Good Joke, 1887
(exh. 1).
Stieglitz's first international recognition.
3. "The Hand Camera-Its Present Importance," the

AMERICAN ANNUAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND PHOTOGRAPHIC TIMES ALMANAC FOR 1897, ip-27
(reprinted in
W.
I.
L.
Adams,
[New York: Baker and
ed., Sunlight
of Man, 1902 (no. 15), and Going
and Shadow
Taylor, 1897], 69-78).
4.
"Pictorial Pholograpliy,"
26
[iSgc)),
The photograph which StiegUtz referred to as Fifth

Avenue, Winter was more
Fifth
commonly
titled
its
improvement in 1878 revolutionized pho-
tography, for
from
freed the photographer
it
of developing
his film
the ne-
J.
T. Keiley. See "The Camera Notes' Improved
Glycerine Process for the Development of Platinum
within twenty minutes
Camera Notes
Plates,"
No longer did he have to stay close to
of its exposure.
his
now he could develop
darkroom;
even weeks
after
its
his film
This
article,
tin
do
this
diverse audience than
exposure, or he could commission
work
dry plates, and
And because the gelawere much
for him.
were no longer
a necessity; cameras
new process, numer-
tripods
ous hand cameras appeared on the market in the
880s,
was the Kodak manufac-
the most successful of which
firm" to which Stieglitz referred, whose slogan was

press the button,
we do
Stieghtz has frequently been hailed as the
the
pictorial
hand camera;
in actuality
first se-
and pro-
he was not.
Many
photographers used hand cameras, and the
year before Stieghtz's article was published, the

teur Photographer
(London) printed
a series
of the hand camera
extolling the virtues
Ama-
Seriously," Amateur Photographer 23 (27

J.
5.
Company,
was famiUar
some of
modeled
on An-
also
many of his
his essay
ideas. Indeed, Stieg-
Annan's
for example, the sixth paragraph
article.
of Stieg-
paragraph of Arman's.
the case with his article

tall
"Two
Artists'
buildings and railroads
only to photograph them a few years
here too Stieglitz dismissed "express trains" and
"racehorse scenes" as "rarely wanted in pictures," yet
were the
Club
the
in
was asked
pictorial
New
subjects
photography
March 1902
at the
of
National Arts
York. Tired of the bickering within
Camera Club of
New
York and
disgusted
by
of his mismanagement of the club's peri-
allegations
odical,
in
to arrange an exhibition
Camera Notes, Stieghtz iBed the National Arts
Club's invitation to declare his separation not only
from the Camera Club, but more generally from the
for he not only quoted
close to plagiarizing
as unfit subjects,
these
Stieglitz
conservative spirit which dominated American pho-
March
clear that Stieghtz
Harmts," where he rejected
later,
when
tography.
By
calling this
Europe
htz's article to the seventh
As was
igof}, j.
artists in
It is
BAVSCH and lomb lens
N.Y.: Bausch and Lomb Optical
The Photo-Secession was formed
Craig Annan, "Picture Making with
nan's, appropriating
Compare,
(Rochester,
was
articles,
came very
Photo-Secession,"
Stieglitz
Annan's statements but
Utz
the "plastic na-
of articles
theHand-C^meti," Amateur Photographer 2i (27 March

with these
"The
SOUVENIR
1896),
1896), 275-277.
and more
previous ar-
for artistic
work. See H. P. Robinson, "The Hand-Camera Taken
270-271, or
larger
Stieglitz's
summation of his bcUef in
American
the rest."
rious or "artistic" photographer both to use
mote
much
any of
ture" of photography.
tured by George Eastman. This was the "enterprising
"You
(April 1900), 221-226.
later plastic-based films,
could be held. As a result of the
faster,
written for a
days or
ticles, is a
others to
was conducting
tions" refers to experiments Stieglitz

vifith
cessity
see note 2.
The "latest experiments with the platinum process

... of local brush development with different solu-
invention of the gelatin dry plate process in
1871 and
magazine
scv.iBNBn's
32S-337.
Henry Emerson,
Peter
Winter-
Avenue, 1893 (no. 12).
The
Morris
to the Post,
Park, 1904 (exh. 34).
of two of his most well-known
photographs from the turn of the century: The Hand
away from
group the Photo-Secession
clearly associating
it
with the
secessionist
who had also felt compelled to break
the academic and conservative spirit of
their art schools
and exhibitions. The photographers
whom
asked to join the Photo-Secession,
Stieglitz
including
Edward
Steichen, Gertrude Kasebier, Clar-
ence H. White, and Joseph T. Keiley, were
all
com-
mitted to proving the plastic nature of photography.

In order not to dilute the impact
agreed to exhibit only

tions
of
of their work, they
group and only
which recognized photography
artistic expression.
extremely
stylistic
tographers long after

its
at exhibi-
as a valid
form
The Photo-Secession was an
influential force in
continued to exert a
with
as a
its
photography, and
influence
it
on many pho-
demise in 1910. This
article,
emphatic, ringing explanation of creed, was
the Photo-Secession's manifesto.
6.
" Tlie Photo-Secession and the St. Louis Exposition,"
AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER
The
Photo-Secession, hke other photographic or-
ganizations,
1904
St.
5p {14 April 1904), ZS8.
was asked to contribute pictures
Louis Exposition. However, because the pho-
Building and not the Fine Arts Biulding, where paint-
and the decorative
furniture, glass,
and pottery
arts
including
is
from
a long article
which
details the events
leading up to the Photo-Secession's refusal and
tempts to convince the
St.
its
at-
Louis authorities to recog-
on
of nude
a series
the models' names, the
Cramer-Thompson
semi-achromatic lens
Stieglitz
series.
a partially color cor-
is
and an anastigmat
rected lens
and
studies called, after
lens
is
one corrected
for stigmatistns. In theory (but not necessarily in practice)
an anastigmat lens would be sharper and
faster
than a semi-achromatic one.
were to be displayed,
the Photo-Secession refused to participate. This excerpt
collaborated
to the
tographs were to be exhibited in the Liberal Arts
ing, sculpture,
ited at the Little Galleries. In 1907 he
equated "seeing" not simply with the
Stieglitz
process of looking, but
more
specifically
with the act
of experiencing. For Stieghtz something was seen
when
was
its
and relationship to the viewer
significance
intuitively
not rationally analyzed. More-
felt,
over, reflecting the influence of Henri Bergson's ideas,
nize the artistic merit of photography.
Stieghtz believed that intuitive perception, not intel7.
"Twelve Random Dont's," ruoTOCJiAVHic top-
ics 7 (January 190$),
also posited that intuition
1.
The Photo-Secession were well known

softly focused
tissue.
for their
platinum photographs printed on Japan
mous member of
1910s and 1920s.
late
most notorious.
because
prints, its
He also
many
played a central role
and organization of the

in 1905
Little
Gal-
he suggested to
Photo-Secession open a gallery at
291 Fifth Avenue in
between 1906 and 1913 and
work of many contemporary artists, Steimuch of the modem art shown at 291,
chen selected
including the exhibitions of Rodin's drawings and

Matisse's etchings in 1908, Cezanne's
in 1911.
with
He
more
in 1910
Picasso's
also directed to Stieghtz
artists
an active participant
work
Marius de Zayas
whom he
1911, however, Steichen,
accepting the
who had
abstract
at
met
many
in Paris. After
a difficult time
modem art,
ceased to be
291 and was replaced by Agnes
Ernst Meyer, Paul Haviland, Francis Picabia, and most
of Steichen's
Clarence H. White (1871-1925), American pic-
photographer, was a founding
Photo-Secession whose
liighly
work was
member of the
frequently pub-
Camera Notes and Camera Work and exhib-
manipulated photographs in the
July 1902 issue of that periodical.

active in the
He
continued to be
promotion of pictorial photography
Germany and pubhshed
the Jahrhuch
fiir
in
Kuuslphoto-
graphie und Internationale Kunstphotograpliicu.

In 1909 Charles Kurtz, director
of the Albright
New
York, asked Stieghtz to
arrange an exhibition of the
work of the Photo-Seces-
Art Gallery, Buflalo,
sion. Tliis
torial
was
show, the Internationa! Exhibition of Pic-
Photography,
November to 1 December 1910,
for Stieglitz the reahzation
American
art
museum,
as
of a dream;
he wrote,
finally
"fearlessly,
an
over
the signature of its Director, imequivocally states pub-
does
recognize photography as a
hcly that
it
medium
for art expression" (Stieglitz, Photo-Seccs-
officially
sionism and Its Opponents[Nev/Yot:k:pTivitcly primed,
25 August 1910],
9). Instead
of choosing photographs
only by members of the Photo-Secession, however,

Stieglitz selected
especially de Zayas.
lished in
cancel their subscriptions after he reproduced twelve
New York; and because he hved
in France intermittently
young American
from 1 S96
He was forced to resign his editorial position

so many important subscribers threatened to
of the Photo-Secession:
and 1911, and
ycal.
editor oiPhotographische Rundschau
pictorial photographers.
the
yorfe,
German photographer,
to 1902.
ing of symboUst hterature, greatly influenced
Stieglitz that the
6January igii,Ncw
Ernst Juhl (1850-1915), a
was the
fa-
Steichen's evocative photographs, inspired by his read-
in the formation
Letter to Ernst Juhl,
the Photo-Secession and, because
of his highly manipulated
torial
photographs in the
Stieghtz's
8.
tissue.
photographer and painter, was perhaps the most
work
Bergson
life.
ceiving the essence of hfe. This idea greatly influenced
EdwardSteichen (1879-1973), American pictorial
knew
for
was the only way of per-
Stieghtz also printed several photogravures in
Camera Work on Japan
leries
was the only guide
lectual analysis,
work by both living and dead, Euroin order to "sum
pean and American photographers,
up the development and progress of photography

a
means of pictorial expression" ("Foreword,"
as
Inter-
national Exhibition oj Pictorial Photography [cxh. cat..
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y.,i9io],n. p.).
Over
and
by Frederick H. Evans from Great
fifteen
having demonstrated that
Stieglitz,
plastic
medium, now sought
to
compare photographic expression to expression in the
ninety-seven by photographers Stieglitz invited to
send work, including twenty-four by J. Craig
And
dispersed.
photography was a
hundred photographs were shown, four hundred
six
Annan
other
arts.
Britain;
twenty by Robert Demachy from France; nineteen by
New
Heinrich Kuhn from Austria; and twenty-five by Alvin
9.
Langdon Cobum, twenry-two by Gertrude
Kasebier,
York,
by
Stieg-
Sadakichi Hartmatm Newsletter 2 (Fall 1971), 3-4.
all
repre-
thirty-one by Edward Steichen, twenty-nine

Ltz,
and thirty-four by Clarence H. White,
photographs by Karl
art
by
Struss, eight
YCAL, UCR. Published
and photography
descent,
was
December igil.
in
its
entirety in the
Hartmann (1867-1944), an American
Sadakichi
senting the United States. In the open section Stieglitz

selected twelve
Letter to Sadakichi Hartmanit, 22
critic
of Japanese and German
a contributor to
both Camera Notes and
who
Arnold Genthe, and four by Francis Brugui^re. Un-
Camera Work. Hartmann,
fortunately, although the Albright Art Gallery did
Stephane MaUarme's salon in 1893 and wrote three
purchase twelve photographs for

lection,
it
its
permanent col-
symbolist plays,
on
the symbolist pictorial
pho-
(See, for
example, Dennis Long well, Steichen: The Master Prints,
aroused a great deal of controversy in
J5p5-ipj4 [Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1978],
community. The announcement of
the photographic
the exhibition, pubhshed in the April 1910 issue
15.)
of
"who
would be an open
section for
Camera
of
"The Buffalo Fine
Camera Work no. 30 [April 1910],
sible for the
and though a frequent contributor to
Fuguet, William D. Murray, and most
Hinton were the
respon-
critics
symbolist-derived aesthetic of pictorial
photography which developed
60). This incensed
in
influential force in the
he was not one of its major theoreti-
especially A. Horsley
Academy,"
Arts
Notes,
cians. Dallett
being adequately represented in an important exhibition" (C. B. Sage,
Hartmann was not an
field until 1900,
Amer-
hitherto have not had the opportunity
Although he began writing on photography
1898,
IVork, noted that in addition to the invited
exhibitors there
icans
frequently credited as being one of
many of the activities of the Photo-Secession,
this exhibition
Camera
French poet
tography of Camera Noto and Cuoifra Work.
a gallery for artistic photography.
Like
is
the major influences
did not, as Stieglitz wrote to Juhl, maintain
visited
in the early issues
of
many photographers who were not members of the
Camera Notes: Hartmann's writings only served to
Photo-Secession because the imphcation was clear that
confirm and reinforce
the
many salons which had
taken place between 1902
and 1910 without the support of the Secession were
In the
not to be considered major, or even important, exhibitions.
Provoked by the
attitude
elitist
is
and the
pictorial
it
both
a conclusion to the
movement
as
an
that the Photo-Secession
would continue
influential force in
conflicts
in
Camera Work and

the
his sculpture
Gordon Craig
to be an
photography.
and
designer,
and drawings
and drawings
at
291 in
in 1912.
at
291 in
(1
872 - 1 966) an EngHsh actor, stage

,
and the son of actress Ellen Terry, made en-
gravings of his studies for stage
He was
sets.
In 1910
Edward
Steichen selected several of Craig's engravings for an
and growing
exhibition at 291
dissension over the reproduction of other art forms
leries,
his paintings
1908 and 1910.
opinion, maintaining
not correct. Split by personality
291 in 1911, and
Auguste Rodin's drawings were shown
in general. Stieglitz ada-
this
and
at
in 1910,
historical
Photo- Secession
mantly refused to accept
active
his last trip
Henri Matisse's etchings were shown
exhibition was quite favorably received. Yet
summation and
made
most important visit for the
1908, his drawings and photographs of his paintings
tography 4 [August 1910], 485).
reviewers correctly saw
also his
in 1914-1915.
deed" (Walter Zimmerman, "Letter," American Pho-
The
was
Pablo Picasso's drawings and watercolors were
shown
not
an agreeable one, to put the matter very mildly in-
many
it
8.
Stieghtz
development of his "idea photography."
of the Photo-
those not of the Secession are of a different class
summer of 1911
to Europe;
one writer noted that "the suggestion that
Secession,
this aesthetic.
Albright Art Gallery, see note
from 10 December 1910 to
Jan-
uary 1911.
Ambroise Vollard was
their exhibition at the Little Gal-
many
members of the Photo-Secession gradually
223
a Parisian art dealer for
post-impressionist artists including Paul
Gau-
first
show
Gogh's work
a leading French art gallery
and Cezanne's
Auguste Pellerin was a French

sold
after
her was
who first
The Champs de Mars was
forgiveness
Nationale des Beaux-Arts, founded in 1890 as an
of the Societe des
prizes
formed
Many
and had no juries.
and symbolist
artists
in
1884
as
the salons,
Matisse.
in 1903
It
were christened
December 1911
work
illegitimate
De Meyer had his first exhiwas shown again from 18
to 15 January' 1912.
bition, see note 8.
Sixteen of Stieglitz's photographs were reproduced
at this salon.
in
Camera Work no. 36 (October 1911).
went
exhibitor at 291,
to Paris in
October
1910 and stayed for over a year. Although he was
ini-
10. Letter to Heinrich Kiilm, 14 October 1$12,
by cubism, he soon met
was
YCAL
tially baffled
so impressed with his

lected several
of
work
Picasso's
for an exhibition at 291.

first significant article
in
67.
De-
U.S. resident, and frequent contributor to Camera
Work and
to 8
"Buffalo" refers to the Albright Art Gallery exhi-
in 1905 Les Fauves
Marius de Zayas (1880-1961), Mexican caricaturist,
daughter of Edward VII.
bition at 291 in 1907 and
architect Fran-
held large exhibitions of Gauguin's
and
November
Olga Alberta, was rumored to be the
the most avant-garde of
in 1904,
18
at 291,
Be Them
to
had an exhi-
Baron Adolphe De Meyer (1868-1946) was
with assistance from Pierre Boimard and
and Cezamie's
How
illustrator,
photographer of French-Scottish descent whose wife,
post-impressionist
was founded in 1903 by the
cis Jourdain
of watercolors
and
cember 1911.
exhibited at this salon.
The Salon d'Automne,
knowledge of
American humorous
of The Coops and
(1900), occasional artist
protest against the Societe des Artistes Fran? ais, awarded
no
Stieglitz's
Gelett Burgess (1866-1951),
bition
des Independents,
from the Pope.
writer, author
al-
Artistes Fran<âis.
The Salon
with
that his Ufe
he returned to the upper world to ask
era, Tannhauser.
the salon of the Societe
ternative to the conservative salon
sinful,
Tannhauser most certainly came from Wagner's op-
1910 devoted
Cezanne.
his gallery exclusively to
stayed in Venusberg to enjoy the pleasures
of the goddess Venus. But conscious
in 1909.
art dealer
Edouard Manet's work, but
He
cave.
of Vincent van
large exhibitions
in 1901
dis-
covered Venusberg, a magic land reached through a
in 1901.
Bemheim-Jeune was
which organized
who
Tannhauser was a German folk figure
guin, Paul Cezanne, and the Nabis, and he also gave

Picasso his
that he
Picasso and
and Steichen
photographer,
Zayas also published the
on Picasso in the American press
came
November 1914 he
Lithographs by Cezanne were exhibited
at
Stieglitz in
wrote
and January 1911 (number 33)
issues
of
at
13)
Camera Work, and
that
"Europe has nothing
Art Gallery exhibition of 1910.
his
work was reproduced
number), and June 1913
was repeating de Zayas' assessment
Parisian art scene.
Zayas had written to
On
it
The
was unfortunate
like 291, for
found "too many frauds and robberies
36),
August 1912
(special
number)
in the
(special
issues
of
Camera Work.
22 December 1910 de
Stieglitz that
have an institution
intentions,
Aus-
Camera Work. Kiihn's photographs were exhibited
October 1911 (number
Stieglitz
Igls,
After 1910 Picasso was frequently mentioned in
at 291.
Lithographs by Auguste Renoir were exhibited at
similar" to 291 he
1904 in
in the January 1906
to 28 April 1906 and Stieglitz included nineteen of his
291 in
291 in 1910.
ill
Kiihn met
work was pubUshed
prints in the Albright
Van Gogh's work was never showTi
many
his
the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession from 7 April
1910 and watercolors in 1911.
Paris did not
prints.
and
(number
Steichen, see note 7.
of the
for his
bichro-
tria,
organized an exhibition of African sculpture at 291.
When
member of the Trifolium with Hugo
gum
mate
was probably through Picasso that de Zayas beinterested in Airican art. In
York,
Henneberg and Hans Watzek, was famous

very large (occasionally 20 x 30 inches)
Camera Work no. 34-35 (April-July 1911), 65-
It
New
by James Card).
Heinrich Kiihn (1866-1944), German-Austrian
se-
drawings and watercolors
De
(translated
most
"text" to which Stieglitz refers Kiihn was,
likely,
Gertrude Stein's essay on Picasso which
appeared in the August 1912 issue of Camera Work.
he had
in art, too
It is
and too much humbug" and had
possible,
however, that
was
also refer-
Picasso
which was
Stieglitz
ring to Marius de Zayas' article
on
published in the April-July 1911 issue of Camera
"a general feeling of disgust" (ycal).
224
many
Kiilin, like
difficult
had
work
Abraham Walkowitz's (18S0-1965) drawings and
clearer
paintings
than Stein's essay.
pictorial photographers,
had
at
291 from 15 December 1912
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), American painter,
especially perplexed
president of the Association of American Painters and
and he was
Stieglitz, in
August 1912, devoted a special num-
Sculptors,
ber of Camera Work to Picasso's and Matisse's work.
selection
He wrote
tion
to Stieglitz
what relationship
on 2 October 1912 questioning
this abstract art
realism of photography "
D.
11. Letter to George
York,
were shown
to 14 January 1913.
time understanding what significance cubism
to photography,
when
much
34-35), as this was a
Work (numbers
explanation of Picasso's
had
Pratt, 7
New
in
December
igi2.
at the
at the International
Exhibition, was open
from 24 Feb-
ruary to 15 March 1913. Although both Davies and
New
Kuhn knew
YCAL.
and had greatly benefited from
Stieglitz
the series of exhibitions held at 291, Stieglitz
George D.
involved in the planning and organization of the Ar-
member of the
Photo-Secession, was
mory
one of the fmancial backers of 291.
As
on 25 November 1912
cation of so
ical
many
Exhibition. (Along with Claude Monet,
articles
be an honorary vice president of the show.)

to protest the publi-
modem art in a
on
which, he believed, was devoted
has often been noted that Stieglitz, asked to pro-
It
period-
mote
the
Armory show, wrote an article
York American
talize Art,"
letter is the first
time
Stieglitz, in either his
of the
correspondence or published writings, used the term
"antiphotographic art."
It is
"The
titled
First
Great Clinic to Revi-
The
26 January 1913,
that he first used this
that de Zayas' article

lated that the aims
antithetical,
p. 5-CE.
Although many
ideas are Stieglitz's, he did not write the article.
introductory heading
noting that
states this,
it
certainly not coinciden-
was "contributed
tal
New
for the
solely to artistic
photography.
This
Odi-
lon Redon, and Mrs. John Gardner, he was invited to
of Camera Work, Pratt wrote to
a subscriber
Stieglitz
was not
of Standard Oil, amateur pho-
Pratt,
tographer and
Exhibi-
SLxty-Ninth Regiment Ar-
York. This show, which came to be
Armory
called the
with Walt Kuhn, for the
responsible,
of Modem Art
mory
to the "absolute
y cal)
was
of works shown
term
in
to this
newspaper
in the
December 1912 and

interview." In a letter to John Cosgrave
"Photography," which postu-
form of an
on 27 January
1913 Stieghtz wrote, "Did you see the so-called inter-
of painting and photography were
view with
was pubhshcd
in the
January 1913
me
published in yesterday's American?
It
issue
contains
some
things
said but a great deal
which
of Camera Work.
did not say and
12. Letter to
Ward
Miiir,
New
30 Jamiary igi3.
York,
"I
Ward Muir
photographer,
(1878-1927) was an English pictorial
member of the Linked
Ring, author,
John Marin's (1870-1953) watercolors were ex-
Baron
These images of New York City, the Berkshires, and
Marin wrote
on
movements; the
ings; the
these
works
"it
large buildings and the small build-
warring of great and small
aroused which give
me
the desire to express the reac-
in
Camera Work
was
and only one-man show

to 15
March
Meyer,
at
291 was
1913, intentionally
Armory
Exhibition.
see note 9.
He wrote to Stieglitz on 15 April 1913,

new development in painting, at
curious that the
blush a final and
sistible attack
which play
(if the
Real Thing
on everything to which
hitherto pinned
my
faith, pictorially
at all)
I,
an
for one,
irre-
had
speaking, turns
out on closer understanding to justify rather than con-
with one another" ("Exhibition of Watercolors by
John Marin," reprinted
is
first
Feelings are
tion of these 'puU forces,' those influences
De
photography.
work; great
saying, in part: "I see great forces at
Ward Muir was one of the few photographers

who understood why Stieglitz exhibited modem art
at 291 and the implications this modem art held for
by both
likely, the Italian fu-
a short statement
see in print all the things
scheduled to coincide with the
from 20 January to 15 February 1913.
Cezanne and cubism and, most
did
by me" (ycal).
Stieglitz's first
from 24 February
the Adirondacks were strongly influenced
And two days later, he again wrote to Cosgrave,
was staggered to
virtually signed
riodicals.
hibited at 291
of what
supposed to have said and to see the whole business
and frequent contributor to many photographic pe-
turists.
'
say.
YCAL.
virtually the reverse
is
derrm. Looking at any Post-Impressionist work,
mean,
nos. 42-43
was inclined
to
render with the groan:
[April-July 1913], 18).
225
'\i this
is
my
hands and sur-
right,
then the pho-
throw up
tography
trary.
believe in
On
must be wrong.'
the con-
The rightness of the one demonstrates the
ness of the other, in
demn, maybe
is
its
own field.
All that
it
in
Camera Work
photo-miniature
1899 to 1912 and then aimually through 1920, these
painting because he thought
included
on
a panel
illustrators, sculptors,
litz
surprising
work
awards save the honor of acceptance. But
Wanamaker
hibited
not
imtil
as
many photographs as
in the Albright
two
meet
his criteria. In that year
like to
Kan-
arrange an exhibition
agreeable, the exhibition
was never mounted,
(Kandinsky to
Stieglitz,
undated, ycal).
from 17 March
to 5 April 1913.
not surprising that Stieglitz was attracted to
Kandinsky was bom in
866,
years after Stieglitz. Like Stieglitz, Kandinsky
had known many symbolist
artists
and writers
in the
1890s and 1900S. As Peg Weiss has demonstrated in
was
Kandinsky
1917 that Stieghtz began to mold these exhi-
bitions to
would
that he
exact contemporaries
1912
It
(Stieglitz to
it
Kandinsky 'spaintings and writings. They were almost
no
Stieghtz
Art Gallery show.
to
Although Kandinsky
It is
were ex-
exhibition, 2027 photographs
four times
had included
in the
that paying S500 for the
May 1913, ycal). In this same letter Stieg-
exhibited at 291
showing
submitted, and bestowing
knew
Sixteen ofPicabia's drawings and watercolors were
only photographers were competent to judge photo-
finest
was an important
at 291.
War
insisted that
graphs. Previously Stieglitz had also maintained that
only the
it
was poorly hung, was being
presumably because of the outbreak of the Fit st World
and painters of not
exhibitions should be extremely selective,
it
would draw attention
wrote
was
is
ofjudges which
very great renown; in the past he had
because
of Kandinsky 's work
from 1912 im-
Even more
their termination in 1920.
Newark Even-
this
dinsky, 26
in Philadelphia. Despite his distrust for
that Stieglitz agreed to be
York,
for
painting
big business and his loathing of all commercialization,
til
a reporter for the
overlooked. Stieglitz
were organized by the Wanamaker de-
at the exhibitions
White was
work which,
from
alous in Stieglitz's career. Held intermittently
was ajudge
New
News.
the
The Wanamaker exhibitions are somewhat anom-
Stieglitz
igij.
Stieglitz
124 {March 1913),
220-221.
partment store
March
bought the only work by Kandinsky in

Armory Exhibition, Improvisation No. 2-, 1912,
S500. He wrote to Kandinsky that he purchased
"Foreword" Wanamaker Exhibition Catalogue, igi3,
exhibitions
began
YCAL.
Israel
Stieglitz
of pure photography.
14. Letter to Israel White, 18
less)
ing
13
January 1913 that
does con-
the middle course, of (more or
photographic painting" (ycal).
reprinted in
in
to formulate an aesthetic
tight-
in
Munich:
T]ie Formative Jugendstil Years
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979),
Kan-
dinsky's theories of abstract art developed out of this
only fifry-five
Much of what Kan-
photographs were shown out of eleven hundred sub-
symbolist-jugendstil background.
mitted. And, although prizes were
dinsky wrote in Der Blaue Reiter and Vher das Geistige
still
awarded, the
honored photographs were not hackneyed
in der
pictorial
images, as they had been in previous years, but images
by Paul Strand or Karl
many of the same
sky and the Camera Notes and Camera Work writers

insisted that
reality,
Paul Strand.
artist;
Wanamaker exhibition was
was not the function of art
both believed that
as early as 1905,
statement
piction
of form
condemning painterly photographs. Although he had
objects) should
been disenchanted with the excesses of pictorial pho-
because
tography for several years,
modern
art,
and
it
was not
especially Picasso's
sidered de Zayas' articles
modem
art
to depict
should emulate
Camera Work
critics
such
Caffm and Sadakichi Hartmann suggested
nevertheless, Stieglitz chose this obscure exhibition

his first public
it
but to express the feelings and thoughts of the
the pure, nondescriptive expression of music.
not one of the major annual photographic shows;
make
in
of "pure" or "straight"
tographs by Charles Sheeler, Morton Schamberg, and
catalogue in which to
had been expressed
both Camera Notes and Camera Work. Both Kandin-
photography. The 1918 show was dominated by pho-
In 1913, however, the
ideas
example, which re-
Struss, for
flected serious exploration
Kunst must have sounded very famihar to Steig-
litz, as
"more
until he studied
work, and con-
it
assume
that the de-
of recognizable
a less central position in art
abstract qualities
of beauty"
color and
line.
"Of Verities and Illusions," Camera Work
no. 12 [October 1905], 25.)
226
And,
Charles
divened the viewer's attention from the
(See Caffin,
on photography published
(or the illustration
as
In this letter Stieglitz correctly assessed the impact
Kandinsky's writings and paintings would have on
American
artists,
especially those associated with 291
of Camera Work Qanuary 1903) and the

tenth (April 1905). She also regularly exhibited with
first issue
the Photo-Secession at the Little Galleries and
was
in-
Dove, Hartley, Cramer, Walkowitz, and O'KeefFe

were all influenced by Kandinsky. (For further dis-
cluded in the Albright Art Gallery show in 1910. In
cussion, see Sandra G. Levin, "Wassily Kandinsky
photographers, Kasebier was also a well-known
the American Avant-Garde, 1912-1950," Ph.D.
and
diss.,
Rutgers University, 1976.) Kandinsky's theories on
were
art
one of the important sources for Stiegphotographs of clouds, the Equivalents.
litz's
also
15. Letter to IV. Orison UnderwooiJ,
York,
W.
Orison Underwood,
mercial photographer. Stieghtz,
Boston amateur pho-
member of the Photo-Secession, wrote
to Stieglitz
on 28 April 1914 requesting
scriprion to
Camera Work be cancelled because
was
pictorial
com-
who had a private in-
for he believed that
it
was impossible
mercial photographer to maintain
New
York,
W.
York,
com-
for the
artistic integrity.
Orison Underwood, 16 December igi4.
ycal.
May
17. Letter to Frederick B. Hodges, 24
igi^.
New
YCAL.
Hodges was
Frederick B.
that his subit
among
come, was disdainful of this aspect of Kascbier's work,
16. Letter to
jo April 1^14, Neu>
YCAL.
tographer and
addition to her prominent position
New
from Rome,
a pictorial
photographer
York, whose work was included
Wanamaker
On
"devoting more and more space to matters which are
in the
not photographic" (ycal).
1915 he sent Stieglitz two of his photographs, asking
See note 7 for Stieglitz's understanding of "seeing."
The
April -July 1911 issue o{ Camera
him
to
1916
hang and possibly
In the
Work (num-
exhibition.
sell
them
26 March
at 291.
gum bichromate process any color pigment
bers 34-35) contained four articles
on Rodin by
Agnes Ernst Meyer, Sadakichi
could be added to the paper with the bichromated
Benjamin De
gum serving as the medium. A work which had more
and nine reproduc-
than one pigment, applied in successive applications,
Casseres,
Hartmann, and Arthur Symons
was
of his drawings.
tions
Maurice Maetedinck's
writings were greatly revered
photographers. Stcichen,
symbohst
(1862-1949)
by American
pictorial
who photographed
Maeter-
hnck, recounted that his books Treasure of the Humble

and Wisdom and Destiny "had a great influence on me."
And
he described Maeterlinck
itors
who
in
my
took a hvely
exhibition and studied
(Steichen,
tographyat
it
"one of the few
vis-
carefully"
Camera Work;
in the April 1903
number devoted
lished
November
Louis
who
Walko-
few of his photographs on
White, see note
YCAL.
7.
Gertrude Kasebier (1852-1934), American pic-
New
York,
photographer from
worked with her
sister,
On
24 March 1917 she
H. C.
name
as Parish.
Reiner, 11 June igij.
New
York,
H. C. Reiner was associated with the M. A. Seed

Company of St. Louis, a company which had
member of the
work was reproduced
8 May igiy.
a pictorial
occasionally
to this letter, he misspelled her

20. Letter to
Photo-Secession whose
Stieglitz a
wrote to Stieghtz asking where she might show her

photographs in New York. When Stieglitz replied
photographer, was a founding
was an active
1916.
prize in the 1916 exhibition.
witz by Oscar Bluemner.
torial
York,
had exhibited in the 191 5 and 1916 Wanamaker shows

which Stieglitz judged (see note 13). She won third
no. 44 (October 1913, pub-
1914) along with an article on
New
854-1939), a Philadelphia phar-
Wilhamina Parrish,
St.
37) issue.
March
(1
pictorial photographer,
Bullock sent
(num-
to Stei-
Seven of Abraham Walkowitz's dravvings were
Work
and
19. Letter to Williamina Parrish,
chen's work, April 1906, and in the January 1912
printed in Camera
igij.
YCAL.
suggestion that he printed
issue, in the special
print.
member of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia

and a member of the Photo-Secession.
18
Maeterlinck wrote on pho-
article
Steichen's
three times in
(number
John G. Bullock
macist,
photographs
them very
gum
G. Bullock, 26 March
YCAL.
A Life in Photography, n.p.). Stieglitz was so
impressed with an
ber 2)
as
interest in the
called a multiple
18. Letter to John
Plate
in the
frequently advertised in Camera Work.
227
not
make
New
photographs. While he did occasionally
make
mer of 1916 O'Keeffe
Between 1911 and 1915
many
portraits
of the
artists
and
his attention
and
Stieglitz did
pubhshing Camera Work and directing 291. But
Work
the large issue of Camera
tion
"What
is
West Texas
as often as three
niaking numerous portraits and a
from the back window of
of pictures
21. Letter to
York,
R. Child Bayley,
igi6.
the
who
(1802-1870) was
Hill
formed
in 1843
artists, especially
Kanwere
the aims and concerns of that group to the Srieglitz
a Scottish
circle
with the
a parmership
the calotype process, they photographed
many of Ed-
sented
and
Annan made prints
Camera Work, number
11,
and
number
37. Stieglitz included forry
Adamson's works
tion in 1910,
in the Albright
new
that they
that their
work was "worthy of the
and study by every serious photographer"

tional Exhibition of Pictorial
bright
An
Photography [exh.
York, but
cat.,
scientific
litz
Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y., 1910], 17)-
York,
November
igi6.
New
that
YCAL.
saw the new
architec-
to startling heights, as the
it
in this letter
refers to the
also to the camera. It
of the
of the "machine,"
metropolis of
was significant
New
to
him
product of the technological and
revolution of the
wanted
could be
mention
capable of making
Al-
architecture, both frightened
could easily create an inhuman
that the camera, a
{Interna-
New
environment.
StiegUtz's
closest attention
about
most frequently repre-
optimisric, manifestation
however, not only
the pioneers "ofpictorial portrait photography," stated
as expressed in this
feelings
twentieth century. But he also recognized that
this architecture
were
its
which was soaring
soulless
of Hill and
Art Gallery exhibi-
and the catalogue, noting
Stieglitz in
most obvious, and
in Jan-
uary 1912 nine more photogravures were included in

issue
by
city,
fascinated him. Stieglitz
ture,
In 1905 six photogravures
of Hill and Adamson's work, printed by Annan, were

in
photographs and
had ambivalent
York. The power of the
Their photographs were practically forgotten until
pubhshed
in his
letter, Stieglitz
inburgh's famous citizens between 1843 and 1848.
from the original negatives.
of artists.
As seen
photographer Robert Adamson (1821-1S48). Using
the Scottish photographer J. Craig
Reiter
an important means of transmitting and translating
Amateur Photographer and Photography.
David Octavius
In-
dinsky. His paintings and his letters to Stieglitz
work of the Blaue
the
R. Child Bayley (1869-1934) was an English pholater
The
recently
had been greatly influenced by
in Europe, Hartley
tographer and editor of Photography, and
at 291,
An American Place, had
returned to the United States from Germany. While
New
YCAL.
painter
and frequent exhibitor
timate Gallery, and
November
Lake
Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), American modernist painter
(no. 21).
home.
at
ycal.
George,
291. See Francis Pkahia,
Back-Window-" 291," 1915
frequently
chronicling both
23. Letter to Georgia O'Keeffe, 7 October igi6.
1915 (no. 34), Charles Demiitb, 1915 (no. 28), 01 From

the
Canyon, Texas.
either Stieglitz or 291
or four times a day
291 and
his life at
photography,
series
in the fall at the
in
the large and small, the public and private events of
another edition until October 1916. In the intervening

his attention to his
and then
Normal College
Stieglitz wrote to herpractically every day
directed to the ques-
291?" was published in January 1915
months he turned
State
sum-
in the
New York, to teach first at
But she was not separated from
after
47, dated July 1914) Stieghtz did not issue
(number
left
the University of Virginia
with 291,
critics associated
time were primarily devoted to
his
York from South CaroUna. Early
art.
modem age, was a machine
With
his
photographs Stieg-
to demonstrate that a machine, the camera,
made
was not
responsive to the person operating
it;
necessarily a "soulless" monster, but
could be a tool for
artistic expression.
Early in January 1916 Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz began
what would become
nous correspondence.
Pollitzer
On
brought to Stieghtz
coal drawings,
volumi-
24. Letter to Georgia O'Keeffe, 22 January 1917,
a roll
York,
of O'Keeffe's char-
and
in
Stieglitz
meeting in April 1916
1908 to see the Rodin
had
made numerous photographs from the

window of 291 in 1915 and 1916. For two taken
at night sec
their first significant
when O'Keeffe
New
YCAL.
Stieglitz
back
and he was very impressed. Although
O'Keeffe had been to 291

exhibition, she
January of that year Anita
21),
(no. 20).
arrived in
228
from
and From
the
the
Back-Window-" 291," 1915
(no.
Back-Window-"291", 1915-1916
25. Letter to Hamilton Easter Field, 16
November
igzo.
Lake George, ycal.
Hamilton Easter
Field (1873-1922), painter, critic
for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, founder of The Arts

(1920), and
He was
collector,
bought
moved by
titled
a frequent visitor to 291.
Picasso's 1911 exhibition at 291:
a pencil
he
drawing Picasso had made when he
was twelve years old

so
was
the only person besides Stieglitz to purchase
work from
for twelve dollars. Stieglitz
Field's death that
"Hamilton Easter
Field
was
he wrote a eulogy
Dead" (unpubHshed
is
manuscript, ycal).
From
Stieglitz
New York as a city in transition, a place
where old and new were

sition
in a constant state
and confrontation. Perhaps
his
of oppo-
most obvious
depiction of this theme was the photograph Old and
New New
York, 1910 (exh. 40),
where nineteenth-
century brownstones are being destroyed to
room
for twentieth-century skyscrapers.
But
tographs such as TheFlat-Iron, 1902 (exh. 31)

the monolithic structure of the
new
make
pho-
in
where
age, the sky-
scraper, threatens to crush, or even eradicate, the older
order of nature Stieglitz,
less
emphatically, but per-
haps more poetically, expressed
this
same idea. By the
1930s the physical characteristics of
changed
radically, as
from 291,
as
of 291, they did divert attention away
did the
newly estabhshed
New York
had
had the look of Stieglitz 's photo-
graphsboth were more obviously machine-made.

Nevertheless, Stieglitz continued to depict
New York
Ray, Charles Sheelcr, and Joseph

at the Arensbergs.
tion:
May igiy. New
York,
Nor was Camera Work
periodicals that appeared during the
Man
the only or
art publica-
war
years.
And,
although the gallery 291 spawned the periodical 291,
had
Stieglitz
little
to
do with
was primarily
tion; that
the
its
bold experimenta-
work of Marius de Zayas,
Paul Haviland, Agnes Ernst Meyer, and Francis Pica-
During the same time when new galleries, new

and new periodicals were being established,
bia.
salons,
which drew
away from
attention
291, Stieglitz also
broke withseveral ofhis friends. He had long since separated
from many of the members of the Photo-Secesby the middle of the 1910s he felt himself
sion, but
increasingly isolated. Because ofhis
and
German
heritage
his years spent in Beriin as a student, Stieglitz
could not accept the anti-German hysteria rampant in

the United States during the war. This strained
many
ofhis friendships, especially his relationship with Stei-
And
in late 1915/early 1916, Stieglitz also split
who
Gallery,
had
which
mercial. (De Zayas
YCAL.
set
up
his
own
Stieglitz felt to
gallery,
The
be too com-
had played an extremely impor-
tant role at 291 in the previous four or five years, or-
O'Keeffe's
work was shown
at
291
first
May
in
ganizing
many of the
exhibitions.) In addition, the
1916 with that of Charles Duncan and Rene Lafferty;
war made it diificult for
November 1916 with works by Marsden

Hartley, John Marin, Abraham Walkowitz, Stanton
Camera Work made

ican
Macdonald-Wright, and ten-year-old Georgia Engel-
Camera Work had only thirty-seven
again in
hard; and finally in April and
May 1917, the last exhi-
Stieglitz exhibited
In the spring
work by
of 1917
March 1915
this decision, the single
the center
fac-
Work
subscribers. All
unhappy marriage, caused him
until
of
of
Stieglitz,
to
in 1917.
one which
O'Keeffe came to
New
New
York,
27. Letter to Georgia O'Keeffe, 24 June igiy.
of artistic experimentation
began to exhibit
no Amer-
and stop publishing Camera Work
would not improve

York in June 1918.
YCAL.
York. After the Armory show several gal-
New York
felt
most im-
portant one was that Stieglitz, 291, and Camera
had ceased to be
have the plates for
Finally, the last issue
This was a very bleak period for
decided to close 291
and stop publishing Camera Work. While many

accounted for
close 291
children.
Stieglitz
Stieglitz to
Munich, and he
work was comparable.
nancial state and his
In April 1912, February 1914, and
in
these reasons, plus Stieglitz's increasingly difficult fi-
bition at 291.
New
as
congregated
The Seven Arts (1916-1917), Blind Man (1917),
Modem
in
Stella
most innovative avant-garde American
with de Zayas,
26. Letter to Georgia O'Keeffe, jj
leries in
of Mable
Albert Gleizes, and Francis Picabia, as well
chen.
as a city in transition.
tors
salons
Dodge and Walter and Louise Arensberg. By 1915

the Arensbergs' home was an active center for both
European and American artists: Marcel Duchamp,
and Rongivrong (1917) were among the experimental
the turn of the century through the 1930s
saw
While none of these had an exhibition schedule as significant as that
modem
Emil Zoler was a painter and
art.
at 291
229
The Intimate
Gallery,
and
Stieglitz's assistant
An American Place.
made
In the final days of 29rs existence Stieglitz
lery, including
with
its
in the
piles
291 and
The Last Days of 291
comer,
is
photography must deal with
of those rooms.
it is
Stieglitz's
in the
clear,
attempt to bring
both in
who had
art as
an
tried,
and
failed, to
integral part
as the
Paul Strand (1890-1976), an American photog-
up-
rapher whose early
art to
Stieglitz's
Lake
and by the
4).
photography was characterized by
and Joseph T. Keiley
"Oiling"
1910s
late
it
was replaced with

is
a metallic ele-
ment which resembles platinum, palladium paper
gum
could approximate the tonal range and texture of
softly
platinum paper.
bichro-
in
refers
cess introduced in
which glycerine
to produce either sepia or black palladium prints.
In the late 1910s and early 1920s both Strand and
both to the oil-pigment pro-
Stieglitz
known
1904 by G. E. H. Rawhns and to
the bromoil process
which replaced
it
ment, and bromoil prints
all
Gum
in 1907.
bichromate, glycerine-developed platinum,
allowed for
oil
And as with platinum paper, the pho-
tographer was able to vary the development in order
used in the development of platinum prints (see
note
last
Stieglitz exhibited at 291.
palladium paper. Because palladium
ycal.
Stieglitz
was the
art exhibited at 291,
mercially prepared platinum paper extremely difficult
mate. "Glycerining" refers to the process perfected
is
by
greatly, influenced
During the war, shortages of platinum made com-
get Americans to accept
of their hves.
focused images frequendy printed on
by
modem
photographer whose work
to obtain,
Pictorial
work was
and de Zayas' theory of pure photography
and by the
warrior
28. Letter to R. Child Bayley, p October igig.
George,
Lake George,
CCP/PS, YCAL.
well as in
his letters as
photograph, that he saw himself
this
facts.
29. Letter to Paul Strand, 11 August igig.
It is
most overtly symbolic photographs:
comment on
America. For
"pho-
document of the end of
per right and the framed pictures turned to the wall,

a
insisted that
tographers must not copy the subjects of painters;
(no. 26),
with the bandaged bust of Stieglitz's father
it is
Muir
and photography were not ahke and therefore pho-
left
his
articles
He also pho-
itself:
Stieglitz's destruction
one of
also
Augustandi7Septemberi9i9], 144-145,
tography's hmitations must be recognized"; painting
of burlap and the stacks oi Camera Work
lower
[13
245-246). In these
Emil Zoler (exh. 62) and Hodge Kirnon
(no. 30), the well-read elevator operator.
tographed 291
raphy4&
of the people associated with the gal-
several portraits
were experimenting with the new and un-
palladium paper. Neither was content to ac-
cept the manufacturers' instructions for palladium paper, but instead they appear to
pig-
have made numerous
and possibly quite unorthodox
a great deal
of manipulation by the photographer.
oping and toning
this
with devel-
tests
paper. Their letters, although
example, never men-
not very detailed
Robert Demachy (French, 1859-1935) and Frank
tioned formulas and only occasionally referred to the
Eugene (American, 1865-1936) were two
brand name of the paper he was using) do provide
pictorial
photographers w'ho made manipulated images. De-
machy was known

mate
tives
prints
for his very painterly
at the Little Galleries.
his prints.
some
gum bichro-
and Eugene for scratching on
and drawing on
his
tographers Heinrich Kiihn (1866-1944),
clues
on both
Stieghtz's
and Strand's technique
with palladium paper.
nega-
It
Both were exhibited
The "Viermese" were
(Stieglitz, for
has been suggested that Stieghtz's so-called pal-
ladium prints are actually
silver chloride prints
toned
with palladium. (See Estellejussim, "Technology or
the pho-
Hugo Hcn-
Aesthetics: Alfred Stieglitz
neberg (1863-1918), and Hans Watzek (1848-1903).
and Photogravure," His-
tory oj Photography 3 [January 1979], 86.) All the evi-
Known as the Trifolium because each signed his name
dence currendy available, however, docs not support
with a three leaf clover next to
this
his signature,
they
large
gum
bichromate
prints.
All three
were
was responding
by Ward Muir on
Prints
from
straight
to
traces
nondestructive analytic process
of
silver
ladium. Also, Stieglitz in
two
articles
Stieglitz's
did detect pal-
his letters to
Strand repeatIt is
that their differences are the result
230
true that
palladium prints arc not characteristic ex-
amples of the palladium process. However,
and "Photography
for Photographers," Amateur Photographer and Photog-
to be
it
edly writes of his use of palladium paper.
written
photography ("Straight
Straight Negatives,"
which would have
present in a silver chloride print, but
also
exhibited at the Little Galleries.

Stieglitz
assumption.
found no
exhibited as a group and gained prominence for their
it
appears
of unusual dcvcl-
oping and toning and not because they are
camera ("Georgia O'Keeffe Writes a Book," The New
silver
Yorker 54 [28 August 1978], 93). She was an actress
chloride prints toned with palladium.
who,
30. Letter to Sadakichi
York,
Hartmann, 27 April igig.
New
YCAL, UCR.
rather her Selves
vember
In this letter to Hartmann, Stieglitz wrote of his

series
photographed O'Keeffe
monumental
she visited 291, but his
in
He
in 1918.
darkroom
New York
room.
continued to photograph her until 1937,
the date of his
last
more than
three
finished until
Stieglitz's
thought that
work
at the
National Gallery of Art
in order to
photographic diary of the subject's
newly arrived
of Texas
The
to a
idea
Stieglitz's
mature
in
New York from
woman
of a composite
work.
Many
He
daughter Kitty.
called
ing Kitty
1927 that he remodeled a
"Little
photographed
on numerous
Little
is
image
a hesi-
it
House,
c.
1933 (no. 52). For
of photographing
which,
moon,
the
echoes
in the
same darkroom being photo-
usually associated with night and darkness,
is
positive/negative process. This
the photographer
litz
and an homage to the process
Letter to Heinrich Kiihn, J3
3 2.
This
cer-
August 192j. Lake George,
letter
was pubhshed
in
its
is
very similar to
28. In
demned manipulated photography,
how to photograph her, and
bichromate and bromoil
David Octavius
to include in the composite portrait, but O'Keeffe se-
Julia
whether she
it
R. Child
Stieglitz
con-
gum
especially
prints.
Hill, see
note 21.
Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) was an Eng-
hsh photographer best
known
for her portraits
of the
prominent Victorians who visited her friend and neigh-
the
romantic young woman, the mature, sensual woman,

artist.
Camera
The remainder of
Stieglitz's letter to
Bayley of 9 October 1919, no.
he made the ultimate decision of which photographs
or the independent
entirety in
56 (June 1977), 36-37, although the English transla-
as a collaborative effort: Stieglitz certainly se-
project,
at
LS-K.
These portraits of O'Keeffe, however, must be im-
would
is,
of photography.
the letter
somewhat prim schoolteacher,
work
one and the same time, a symbolic portrait of Stieg-
of photographs of
portrait
this
tion has several spelling mistakes.
the
shadow
of making a negative
vidual through time.
would portray
cannot be
his
in
times of the day engaged in var-
lected the attitude she
it
artist.
reproduced several of these in
when, where, and
one
of this building, and the
studies
displayed a similar interest in the changes of an indi-
lected
and he
occasions. Perhaps
graphed, would be turned into a positive print. Even
much more detailed, in this early work Stieglitz
derstood
House," then
the plains
was not new
Although the O'Keeffe
September 1920, ccp/ps,
StiegUtz's favorite subjects,
in the act
A Photographic Journal of a Baby, depict-
at different
ious activities.
tainly
a series
is
7- 8 hours each
merely coincidental that Stieghtz included
years before he began the
O'Keeffe portrait, he made
until
guess I spent
one wliich most clearly defmes its significance to Stieg-
could not
and confident
portrait
became one of
Utz,
produce a
documenting her growth from
years,
tant girl
work
He
it" (16
was not
It
of his most important
with O'Keeffe, but he did photograph her for
twenty
life.
to Strand that "using a bath tub
darkroom. This building, the
was mounted. The key
composite portrait should ideally begin
26 July 1922, Lake George,
small house on the Lake George property to use as a
A photograph, for Stieg-
it
and continue to death
at birth
his
No-
years Stieglitz did not have a proper
He wrote
ycal).
includes 329 fmished portraits of O'Keeffe.) Stieglitz
this
Or
(17
Lake George, but used instead a bath-
day bending over
himdred portraits of O'Keeffe, but he
did not consider every negative or even every print
was not
at
rough on an old back.
photographs, making over three
part of the O'Keeffe portrait.
many
For
of her
himdredfmishcdstudies. (Stieglitz actually made many
do
with herself
CCp/ps, YCAL.
when
1917
portrait
did not begin in earnest until her arrival in
of
in love
ccp/ps, ycal).
1918,
31. Letter to Paul Strand,
composite portrait of Georgia O'KeefTe.
his
Stieglitz first
set
falls
There are very many"
of about 100 pictures of one person." This was,
of course,
Htz,
wrote to Strand, "whenever she
as Stieglitz
looks at the proofs
bor.
how
and how
O'Keeffe decided just
traits
much of herself to reveal to the camera

much to conceal. She was, as Sanford Schwarz has
noted, an actress who loved to perform for Stieglitz's
Lord Tennyson, on the

of such people
Frederick Watts, and
as Sir
Isle
of Wight. Her por-
John Herschel, George
Thomas
Carlyle, as well as
Ten-
won her the acclaim of pictorial photographers

from the turn of the century, who saw in her work a
nyson,
231
historical precedent for their
own
Work no. 41 (January
33. Letter to
moment he
of
portraits. Five
Cameron's photographs were reproduced
Camera
in
that
1913).
Sherwood Anderson,
Herbert
After the First World War, Stieglitz, like Gertrude

Stein in Paris, turned
to writers and
more and more of his
critics.
He
artists
including
Seligmann,
bom
1891, author,
critic,
close as-
was
set
of 291.
He
collaborated with
and Paul Rosenfeld on Manuscripts (1922-
1923), a periodical devoted to experimental poetry,
O'Keeffe, Marin, Arthur Dove,
prose,
by
and musical
StiegUtz
The new members of the group were

figures. In much the same way as Stein
the 1920s.
J.
sociates after the close
the Stieglitz circle of
Demuth, and Strand
reality
August 1923, Lake
and photographer, became one of Stieglitz's
Stieglitz
Hartley, Charles
the
than reality."
attention
continued to support and
promote American painters, but
real
ycal.
George,
ycal.
George, nl,
and reveal a higher order
"more
is
34. Letter to Herbert J. Seligmaiui, p
August igzj, Lake
15
believed he could pierce tlirough super-
ficial reality
at
Ta/fci//^,
and he
criticism,
wrote Alfred
later
an account of Stieglitz's conversations
The Intimate Gallery and An American Place (New
mainly hterary
Haven: Yale University Library, 1966).
Hemingway and
encouraged and stimulated Ernest
In the
other authors in the 1920s, so too did Stieglitz befriend
and promote writers and

Paul Rosenfeld,
Waldo
critics
such
as
Hart Crane,
Frank, William Carlos Wil-
litz
in painting in the 1900s
work
innovative
Stieglitz
was
was
more) younger than
(or
near contemporary.
Sherwood An-
all
And during the
This article was originally written
deeply commit-
who, with
periodical.
to
show
And
through their
own
art
of art
tion
in
Stieglitz also
much
the
oi Manuscripts devoted
"The work of
cither
which were not the
subject
and
in his
whom
(see
Stieglitz
photo-
no. 49). In an issue
to the question
"Can
Photo-
is
more than
By
momentum
of
his
the features and
talk,
a personal relationship, Srieglitz lifts
body of his
subject into a unitary de-
moment of time. Anderson wrote that his stories were
sign that his plate records. His
the result of a sudden passion, an idea conceived as a
material
instant of time (Sherwood Anderson's Mem[New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company,
341). The idea of the moment was of central
upon
atmosphere suggestion and the
mechanism.
is
half
brings closer the old intuitive
results
and Anderson were concerned with arresting a
Stieglitz
this fact
of an intellectual analysis. (See note 7. ) And both Stieglitz
it
graph Have the Significance of Art?" Frank wrote:
approached the crea-
same way. Both placed more
written or photographic
(1919),
graphed on several occasions
American
faith in intuitive expressions, in statements
Our America
thor of
experience, but also the American spirit or soul.
Anderson and
pubhshcd
an associate editor of Seven Arts, and au-
tural criric,
each sought
to Americans not only the unique
Stieglitz's permission,
Waldo Frank (1889-1967) was an American cul-
which was not dependent on, or even influenced
by, European art but which sprang out of American

experience.
Child
Bayley, editor of the Amateur Photographer (London),
ted to proving that America could produce a native

art
as a letter to
Ward Muir, who passed it along to his friend R.
1920s they shared
many common concerns. Both were
contained no reference to photography.
tember 1923), 255.
a generation
Anderson was
StiegUtz,
("Why Modem
35.
whom he met in 1922. Whereas
Crane, Frank, and Williams were
which prompted
published form
"How I Came to Photograph Clouds," amateur

PHOTOGRAPHER AND PHOTOGRAPHY 56 (ip Sep-
in literature.
particularly close to
derson (1876-1941),
modem art. He sent Stieg-
htz a draft of his essay in early August
article
and 1910s, much of the most
in the 1920s
Sehgmann was asked by
on
Art," Vogue 62 [15 October 1923], 76, 110, 112), the
heyday of experimentation
that, after the
1923
article
this reply. In its final
hams, and Jean Toomer. Perhaps both Stein and Stieg-
found
summer of
Vogue to write an
analogous to the
work
in thus moulding
work of any good por-
who does his moulding in his eye and with his
whole in an
traitist,
moirs,
hand on canvas" ("A Thought Hazarded," MunHJcripti
1942],
importance to
his studies
time
Sticglitz's
of clouds he
when
tried to capture that instant
the outer rcaliry of the clouds
with, or was equivalent
no. 4
to, his
subjective state.
5).
Stieglitz's
professor at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin, had
of
merged
At
[December 1922],
Hermann Wilhelm Vogel (1834-1898),
photographs of the 1920s: in
invented "ortho"
that
232
or more correctly orthochromatic
plates in 1873.
Orthochromatic or isochromatic
were photographic negatives which were
plates
tive to
were overly
plates
with
sensi-
tive to red, orange,
chromatic plates
and
sensitive to blue light
and yellow
became
it
insensi-
With ortho-
light.
possible to
a musical instrument. In itself the
gel
began to manufacture orthochromatic plates com-
was
a student in Berlin,
he made extensive experiments with these

StiegHtz's
mother Hedwig
of 1922 Stieghtz made
fall
produce a work of art {Manuscripts no. 4 [De-
it
Sherwood Anderson,
ycal.
Although
which
in
title
fall
graphs
Clouds
of 1923, however, using
indeed,
eration.
To
those
artists
tween 1900 and 191 5

standing of
ism
modem
StiegHtz's photographs
under-
strive to emulate.
As Arthur
ernism in Art," Magazine of Art
more
"Mod-
ing be.
this
modem
that the public did not really "see" his
"New York
significant
abstract art (see Judith
Stmggle
in
would have said,
perhaps in reference to
their goal.
Stieglitz circle frequently
his
works
praised, but
he
photo-
that they did not imderfull signifi-
exhibition at the Anderson Galleries, Stieglitz wrote,
and instead the
became
was nonmimetic, so too should paint-
Members of the
sub-
cance and importance. In the introduction to his 1923
used
analogy to music both to explain and defend
thetic
felt
he enjoyed having
stand and experience his images for their
Qanuary 1917),
reality,
"abstract" beauty of music
Just as miwic
artist
graphs, as he
noted in
115-116, the avant-garde painters of this generation
had ceased to copy external
any
the other arts should
Dow
his
was extremely wary of his "public": hke
Stieglitz
the purity of expression foimd in music was,

all
were expressions of
jective state. See also note 35.

their
strong heritage of symbol-
they believed, the ideal which
make
may also be an homage to Walt
to maturity be-
and so brought to
art a
any
in
photographs
these 1923
titled
Wliitman's Songs ofMy self, for like Whitman's poems,
of many of his gen-
who came
by five
made dozens of cloud photo-
Songs of the Sky (no. 58), indicating his desire to

visual music; the title
recognize the "music" in his photographs, Stieghtz
Lake
summer
his small four
more than he would make
He
following year.
In his wish to have the composer Ernest Bloch
aesthetic beliefs
ig2j.
began to photograph clouds in
inch Graflex camera, he
Ten Movements.
was echoing the
November
of 1922, he made only ten photographs which
fall
and
A Sequence of Ten Cloud Photo-
graphs (nos. 56 and 57) with the alternative
Stieglitz
he considered good enough to mount. In the
of photo-
graphs of clouds, using his eight by ten inch camera,
he titled Music:
11).
George, nl,
new plates.
a series
his life
36. Letter to
and
(exh. 104) died in 1922.
was
did
the
In the
it
and the record of that"
to "Sing
cember 1922],
photograph
of
made
both landscape and clouds on the same negative. Vo-
mercially wliile Stieglitz
instrument
was nothing, had no inherent value, only when
colors but red. Prior to Vogel's invention
all
is still
his
photographs of O'Keeffe,
not ready for some of the most
photographs
have made" [Second Exhibi-
tion
ofPhotography by Alfred Stieglitz [exh.
son
Galleries,
New
York, 1923],
cat.,
Ander-
n.p.).
K. Zilczer, "The Aes-
America, 1913-1918," [Ph.D.
University of Delaware, 1975]).
tograph the visual equivalent to
By
In 1923
ers: like
them he
modem paint-
was adopting the aim of many
December ig23.
New
York,
CU, YCAL.
a musical experience,
Stieglitz
tried to create
37. Letter to Hart Crane, 10
diss.,
wanting to pho-
saw
when
Stieghtz's
the poet Hart Crane (1899-1932)
photograph Apples and Gable in
exhibition at the Anderson Galleries, he
an abstract language
is
his
reported to
of form which, Hke music, woidd speak directly to
have said, "That is it. You've captured life" (recoimted
the viewers' emotions.
by Brom Weber,
In this article Stieglitz clearly acknowledged that he
began making photographs of clouds
sitters.
But
it is
it
"hypnotized,"
significant that in the
Manuscripts devoted to the question
same
"Can
issue
48). Stieglitz
to his
his
test
of any work of art
ing or photography
Marin equated the
was very impressed with
work and
later
Dorothy
Press, 1947],
this reaction
wrote Crane that "there never

It
was be-
cause of Crane's perceptive reading o{ Apples and Gable

that Stieglitz
either paint-
spond to
was whether could "Sing."

of the
camera or brush
tool
Emotional Expe-
was truer seeing" (16 April 1923, ycal).
of
Photo-
graph Have the Significance of Art?," John Marin had

written that the
An
Norman [New York: Twice A Year
in order to an-
swer Frank's charge in Manuscripts that he "moulded,"

or as Stieglitz liked to interpret
"Stieglitz:
rience," in the Stieglitz Memorial Portfolio, ed.
It is
it
was
interested to see
his recent
how
he would re-
cloud photographs.
not surprising that StiegUtz found Crane a
sympathetic viewer. Despite the difference in their
artist
233
of their
own emotional experiences.
Crane
him (unpublished
notes in the collection
of Beaumont Newhall, Santa
called
Fe,
New Mexico).
termed
these symbols ultimate harmonies; StiegUtz
them
stay" with
sym-
to create, or rather to find in the external world,
bols
graphs, "ever since [he] realized O'Keeffe couldn't
both the poet and the photographer were trying
ages,
41. Letter to Sherwood Anderson,^July ig2^,LakeCeorge,
equivalents.
NL, YCAL.
New
Dudley Johnston, 3 April 1925,
38. Letter to J.
The hills around Lake George were the subject of

many of Stieglitz's photographs in the 1 920s and 193 os.
Although many of his later studies of clouds were
York, RPS.
Alvin Langdon
Cobum
in several issues
at the
work was published
of Camera Work and
show
Albright Art Gallery
raphy
in
of the
and fostering
as presi-
1923, 1924, and 1925 he
for his
42. Letter to
his initiation
George, nl,
artistic
Sherwood Anderson, 28 November ig2j.
made many photographs of
in
November
the house,
Little
House,
or integrity of individuals,
First
World War commercially man-
it
was
was
gelatin silver paper cut to
When Stieghtz wrote that he was "hoping to make

at least
author and playwright.
cially the
trees at
for Stieghtz
around him in the
trees,
came
he considered acceptable, or to use
1920s and early 1930s.
prints
After the death of his mother in 1922, the family's

estate at
Lake George began to crumble;
difficulties and a lack of interest from

sisters
buildings, gardens,
and
mirrored
emotional
Stieglitz's
had much confidence

old and tired
trees.
in his
by the late
1920s; and
it
O'Keeffe could not spend
all
hall that
in
who
him
litz
but occasionally
Stieglitz destroy so
Now housed in the Stieg-
Archives at Yale, these "second" prints provide a
rare insight into Stieglitz's printing techniques
and
his
thoughts on what constituted an Ai print.
that
of her time with him
New York. He told
"death" was present in
a "wastebasket collection."
more importantly,
to
prints,
many of what she considered to be beautiful prints,

so she rescued many of these photographs and formed
Stieglitz felt
was apparent
by the middle of the 1920s
Lake George or
never one
a satisfactory one. Stieglitz
up these "second"
O'Keeffe could not stand to see
of the
This physical collapse

state:
"ai."
they were plucked whole from the trash by others.
S tieglitz's brothers
own health,
and not achieving
usually tore
financial
resulted in the slow deterioration
his phrase,
In his letters he frequently wTote of making dozens of
of the death and decay he
late
of photographic paper
every summer, but he ended up with very few prints
Lake George, espe-
poplar (exh. 121) and chesmut
symbol
one thousand prints," he was exaggerating.
Stieglitz did use a great deal
The dying and dead
and
who
post office regulation size for post cards.
York,
David Liebovitz (1892-1968) was an American
felt
Teller's Story
growing and groping America."
Postal card paper
New
Lake
1924,
replaced with palladium paper. (See note 29.)
YCAL.
to be a
no. 58).
to obtain because of shortages of platinum, and
or ethical character.
Liebovitz, 24 June ig24.
in
ycal.
During the
David
hills (see
And
dozen other
ufactured platinum paper became extremely difficult
things, or events, or to indicate their spiritual, moral,
40. Letter to
at least a
founded the Eastman Kodak Company.
used the color white metaphor-
ically to describe the purity
made
Sequence
Eastman was George Eastman (1854-1932),
1923 [no. 53]).

Stieglitz frequently
Sherwood Anderson, 7 August
this big, noisy,
after the blizzard
1923 (see First Snoii' and the
first series
(New York: Grove Press, 1924) to Stieghtz, writing,

"To Alfred Stieglitz who has been more than father
to so many puzzled, wistful cliildren of the arts in
Lake CeoToe, nl, ycal.

Stieglitz
in 1922, Music:
Anderson dedicated his book A Story
record of photography ever attempted."
bams, and landscape of Lake George
of the clouds and
studies
Une
references to the ground, the
photog-
and publication of Camera Work, the most
39. Letter to
all
played a prominent role in his
of Ten Cloud Photographs (nos. 56 and 57).
London,
Medal
pictorial
America, and particularly for
hills
of photographs of clouds
Socicr)',
Stieglitz that society's Progress
"services in founding
divorced from
exhibited
in 1910.
dent of the Royal Photographic
awarded
who
Dudley Johnston (1868-1955)
In 1924 J.
mem-
{1882-1966) was a
ber of the Photo-Secession whose
Scattered throughout Stieglitz's letters of the 1920s
at
Nancy New-
are
many of his photo-
numerous tirades against Eastman. While there can
be no doubt that
234
Stieglitz
was struggling to "adapt"
methods
his
Kodak's constantly changing papers,
to
George Eastman and

goat for
much of his
StiegUtz
saw
all
company became
his
disgust with
of the
evils
bihty that their audiences would not be able to
the scape-
American
personal as to be unintelligible.
business.
of American commerce
and
inferior products sold at inflated prices
44. Letter to Paul Rosenfeld, 5 September ig2j.
a lust for
magnified
part of the
Kodak Company. And because
in the
monopoly Kodak enjoyed,
the
company;
deal with this
worker and the boss
Stieglitz
that, too,
Paul Rosenfeld (1890-1946), music
of
and devoted follower of Stieglitz, was
was forced to
him
caused
writing Port ofNew York
great
Lake
YCAL.
George,
money, on both the
make
metaphors would become so
this transition, that their
author,
critic,
midst of
in the
(New York: Harcourt, Brace
and Company, 1924). This book was but one of sev-
aggravation.
eral
examinations of American hfe and culture that
appeared in the
43. Letter to Hart Crane, 27 July
Lake George,
ig2;}.
1910s and 1920s.
late
Van Wyck Brooks'
such as
CU, YCAL.
ica's
Both Crane and
Stieglitz, as
well as Anderson and

ica
many others of this generation,

perception represented a
Coming of Age
Waldo
(1915),
D. H. Lawrence's
(1919),
ican Literature (1923),
much more valid and
Amer-
and William Carlos Wilhams'
truthIn the American Grain (1925),
tellectual analysis. Stieglitz
Our Amer-
Frank's
Studies in Classic
believed that intuitive
understanding than could be achieved through in-
ful
Some works,
pioneering study, Amer-
American
examined the history of
and society
art, literature,
in order to find,
equated intuitive percep-
Rowork of fourteen
to use Brooks' celebrated phrase, "a usable past."

tion with "seeing," and he said, "I refuse to identify
senfeld instead chose to study the
seeing
with knoiving. Seeing
signifies
awareness result-
contemporary American
ing from iimer experience.
Not through
tionahzation of ideas, nor theorizing"
institu-
and
recorded by
(as
Alfred Stieglitz: An Introduction to

[New York: Duell, Sloan, and Pearce,
Dorothy Norman,
an American Seer
critics
new
who
spirit
awakened
he
felt
dawning
a sense
artists,
composers, writers,
embodied "the happy

American
in
life,
sense
of
and [who]
of wealth, of confidence, and of
power which was not
there before" (2).
i960], 52).
When
his ultimate
reality
or Crane
Stieglitz created his Equivalents
harmonics, both
men "saw"
York, NL,
in external
an object which symbolized their inner
Neither analyzed the object to deteriTiine exactly

it
45. Letterto
why
so.
An
art
which recorded
room
Stieglitz's small
twenty
be
feet) in the
May
303,
The
Galleries building at 489
York. From December 1925
perceptions was. Crane and Stieglitz believed, the only
through
way to
O'Keefte, Marin, Hartley, Dove,
arrest the
what Crane
Letters of
flow of time and capture and record
called "the
moment made eternal" [The

Brom Weber [Berkeley:
at
Perhaps the major flaw in
Stieglitz's
at
theory of
equivalence and Crane's idea of ultimate harmonies

that
both
men placed
audience's ability to
make
great deal of faith in their
the intuitive leap
object being depicted to the subjective state

sented.
Both hoped
that the reader or
some event in
his
of perceptions"; that he would "see"
artists
throughout
his
Stieghtz supported and
And
lifetime.
as
both
has noted,
of nature, seeing
artists
paintings
position to Stieglitz's photographs
Complete Poems and Selected Letters and Prose of Hart
at this
[New York:
Livcright Publishing, 1933 and
1966], 235, see note 37).
Both men
Artist
cat..
Washington, D.C., 1980],
risked the possi-
235
Newman
and com-
from Lake George
same time [Arthur Dove and Duncan

and Patron [exh.
as the
from the 1920s
subject matter,
spirit,
seen Stieglitz's photograph Apples and Gable [The
Crane
it
And through
sought to present the es-
many of Dove's
are closely related in
promoted
Dove shared many ideas. Both
a pantheistic vision
simplification,
Crane had
show
with Marin and
sence of the object being depicted. As Sasha
this inflec-
own history
as
one of the
source of spiritual and artistic inspiration.
repre-
his first
291 in 1910, was, along with O'Keeffe and Marin,
had
viewer would
respond, as Crane wrote, "by identifying

tion of experience with
it
Demuth, and Strand
Intimate Gallery.
O'Keeffe, Stieglitz and
from the
work of
1929 Stieghtz exhibited the
Arthur Dove (1880- 1946), who had
Hart Crane, ed.
University of CaUfomia Press, 1965], 132).
was
The
Intimate Gallery,
measured twenty-six by
(it
Anderson
New
Park Avenue in
these intuitive
New
YCAL.
The Room was Room
state.
was equivalent to his emotional state each intuitively
felt it to
Sherwood Anderson, lo December ig2^,
The
37).
Phillips:
PhiUips Collection,
instructing his hsteners. His letters, however, are re-
American
In their search for and definirion of the
experience and the American
markably
spirit, writers, critics,
including Stieghtz, Frank, Brooks, Rosenfeld, WilUains, and others developed, or

and
artists
at least
shared, a
common vocabulary.
they were not using the
other
word was more constantly on
was the native
'soU,'
York,
According to Brooks,
word
when
" 'roots' ...
Peter Henr^'
no
their lips unless
it
Wyck Brooks,
Dutton and Company, 1957],
E. P.
"roots," as distinct
been imposed on
artists
the native
American
from European
this
country.
culture
And
past,
which
or
there
Lake George,
Katherine Mansfield
when
In 1924 she followed
Lawrence
to
New
when he brought
Stieglitz's last gallery.
An American
count of their
life
Swami
in
York,
1902)
met
work
his
to
Place. Stieglitz
The
48. Letter to
In the
On
of Stieglitz's niece,
1925,
23
New
that
it
when O'Keeffe rented
rather,
He
New York.
Room 303 was The Intimate Gallery.
The
Intimate Gallery was an ex-
one of the few
its
rially
all
discussion of fishes
letters in
which
and
seems to have been
if
life
world
good and bad from you; or
which protects and prohibits at the same time."
if
only a few,
who
Stieghtz "in
did "care and
spirit,
and mate-
too." But he added that these people "are not
tagged so that
we
ting himself oft' from

suffering
many
was riddled with parhis preferred
your
to the
am
it,
can perceive them
at a
glance
Adams saw correctly that Stieglitz was slowly cut-
Stieglitz included a
The Intimate Gallery, or An Amer-
ican Place notes that his talk
armor
(ccp/aa, ycal).
birds,
Almost every account of Stieglitz's conversa-
tions at either 291 ,
be presumptuous to say
all-enfolding
the
to write
attitude.
bitten so severely during
know" and were with
See note 45.
hibition of Marin's work.
with
from
summer of
then implored Stieglitz to recognize that there
were people, even
Street in
may
you present an
which keeps both
a larger penthouse apartment at 405 East 54th
at
Madison
him
written to Stieglitz, asking
wondering, and
and winter of 1925 O'Keeffe and Stieg-
show
Place, 509
Stieglitz directed
October 1933 the youthful and optimistic
you have not been
ery winter thereafter until 1936
ables; this
York, which
some length sometime about your
"at
stayed at the Shelton Hotel, where they spent ev-
letter,
was An American
New
Adams had
YCAL.
first
Place
1946.
a friend
Sherwood Anderson, p December
fall
291 in 1916, but
the winter of 1929 until his death in the
together.
was
at
he exhibited forty-five of Adams' photographs.
Avenue,
Elizabeth Davidson.
York, NL,
1 93 6
Nikhilanada, a frequent visitor to Lake
in the 1930s,
showing Paul Strand's work
since
Mexico, and
wrote Lawrence and Brett (1933), an ac-
parable.
Stieglitz in April 1933
met D. H. Lawrence.
she
after his death
is
New
Ansel Adams, 7 December 1933,
had not exhibited or championed any photographers

art student at
London and an acquaintance of
This
Ser-
CCp/aA, YCAL.
Story
the Slade School in
The
met
Lake
The photographer Ansel Adams (bom
Dorothy Brett (1883-1977) was an
them
An American
March 1932 when the filmmaker

stopped in New York after shooting Que Viva Mexico.
YCAL.
litz
Americans" on the jury.

visited Stieglitz at
gei Eisenstein in
See note 42.
47. Letter to Dorothy Brett, 2 July 1937,
George
"real
Chaphn
50. Letter to
was reading Anderson's book
condemn-
Place in the early 1930s. Stieglitz most likely
ycal.
Teller's Story.
were no
Charlie
to cultivate the repressed Amer-
46. Letter to Sherwood Anderson, 11 October 1^24,
Stieglitz
He had
he had fallen into obscurit)'.
art,
ing the Chicago Photographic Salon of 1933 because
and
ican spirit.
George, nl,
in
Naturalistic Photography,
written to Srieglitz on 27 September 1933
frequently spoke of their desire to "cvJtivate"
this American "soil"
in-
photography
in
photography was not and could
insisted that
not be an
which had
these writers
Emerson had been an extremely
and controversial figure
he published The Death of
163).
The terms "the American earth," and "the native soil"

became symbolic of
New
1933,
the late 1880s and early 1890s (see note 2), but after
Days ofthe Phoenix: The Nineteen Twenties I Remember
[New York:
didactic stories.
Henry Emerson, p October
YCAL.
fluential
or 'earth' " (Van
from such
free
49. Letter to Peter
method of
artists
felt that
236
all
but a very
select
of the Depression increased

and
critics
few. As the
in the 1930s,
once associated with
Stieglitz
they had a moral responsibility to use their
and
art to effect social
reform, to depict the
political
plight of the destitute and
unemployed and
was an idea
alleviate their suffering. This
could not understand; for him art put
of anything but the expression of the

a corruption. This attitude caused
many of the artists and
so to help
artist's spirit
him
was
to break with
had been
writers he
Stieglitz
at the service
close to in
the 1920s: Paul Strand and Stieglitz separated in 1932
because Stieglitz could not comprehend or condone

the political overtones
Strand's work,
land
split
and
which were developing
and Elizabeth McCaus-
Stieglitz
because Stieglitz attacked the Federal Art
something which McCausland
Project,
called for
in
from
man who
lived
felt
was "un-
on an unearned
income" (Elizabeth McCausland Papers, aaa).
Many of those who

Stieglitz
An American
Place
because the issues that concerned Stieglitz were no
longer relevant to them.
Art.
He
distrustful
suspected
By the late 1930s more than

An American Place as an
Museum of Modem
of the
museums
all
because they "institu-
tionalized" art categorized, codified, and analyzed

works that Stieglitz thought should simply be allowed
to "exist."
aroused
The Museum of
Stieglitz's suspicion
most because
art,
butions of American
quoted
tieth
as
Modem
however,
Art,
and contempt more than
museum of modem
purported to be a
it
but did not, Stieglitz
recognize the contri-
felt,
artists.
Soby himself had been
"You cannot possibly present twen-
saying,
century American painting
we have presented
as
School of Paris painting. The revolutionary impact

is not there." (As quoted by Russell Lynes,
Good Old
Modern [New York: Atheneum, 1973], 230-231.) De-
spite Soby's statement
did not openly break with
simply ceased coming to
was extremely
and despite
Museum of Modem
the
American
artist;
of the
Stieglitz's
opinion,
Art had not neglected the
Marin was ex-
Stieglitz circle,
hibited in 1936, Sheeler in 1939, Hartley in

1944,
Strand in 1945, and O'Keeffe in 1946.
one person had described
ivory tower, high above the commotion of New York
City and separated from the concerns of the
man on
53- Letter to J.
Before the First World War,
the street. This criticism did not bother Stieglitz: he
hked
to think
even
as a shrine to the art
fended for so
of the Place
many
as a
"Lone Sentinel" and
he had supported and de-
"There
years.
visitors," Stieglitz wrote to
are not very
Place never had a cleaner feeling.
It's
wonderful.
deep religious feeling one might say" (24

1942,
many
Margaret Kiskaddcn. "The
November
15 October igzj,
Lamb, j March
igjS,
New
York,
this
reason he
was the object of some envy from other pictorial photographers. In comparison to
White,
who were just
men such as Steichen and
able to
in their careers, Stieglitz
make ends meet
much of his money came from

after his separation
which was not
early
was a wealthy man. But

his wife,
from her
O'Keeffe together were forced to

51. Letter to Beatrice
Lake
Stieglitz was generally
thought to be quite wealthy, and for
and
ycal).
Dudley Johnston,
George, RPS.
Emmeline,
in 1918,
live
on
his
he and
income,
large.
YCAL.
Beatrice Lamb
(bom 1 904), author and professional
photographer, was editor of Tlie United Nations News.
54. Letter to
New
York,
Ananda Coomaraswaiiiy,
14 February 1^24,
YCAL.
Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877-1947), Keeper of

52. Letter to James T. Soby, ig January 1942,
New
York,
Indian and
YCAL.
of Fine
James T. Soby (bom 1906),
Armed
Services
Program
at the
as director
Museum
Art, had written to Stieglitz asking if he
of the
As
is
soldiers in the
of Modem
(or
have been
camps.
else's
for that matter)
works of art. And he was
give,
asked to
make and
exhibit a
graph. While these were

Stieglitz's tirade,
it
all
and not
his
that he
Stieglitz
was
photographs, but he was also
historical significance these
photo-
photo-
as
museum.
of sending Boston twelve works,
Stieglitz
This
after the
237
works of
first
graphs collected
than perfect photo-
should also be recognized that he
must
was obhged to
graphs would have; they would be the
valid reasons to justify
less
sell,
of
made
he would donate twelve
annoyed
slightly
mindful of the
were being con-
insulted that he
if
photographs to the Boston museum.
clear in this letter, Stieglitz objected to this
anyone
StiegHtz in 1923, and as a result
on him, asked Stieghtz
would lend
request because he did not believe that his photographs
sidered
met
the strong impression Stieglitz's photographs
some of his photographs to an exhibition which would

be sent to the
Muhammadan Art at the Boston Musetmi
Arts,
Instead
art
by an American
donated twenry-seven framed images.

letter to
Coomaraswamy was written shortly
photographs arrived in Boston.
Edward Weston,
55- Letter to
September igjS, Lake
_j
to
of 1922
after traveling
used the large and well-
Stieglitz
New
Camera Club of
at the
York. After he resigned from that club, he had a small
Sticglitz in the
from his home in Cahfomia
but functional darkroom
From
at 291.
the close of
New York specifically to show Stieglitz his photo-
291 in 1917 until 1927 Stieglitz was without photo-
Weston must have
graphic facihties; he developed his films and papers
graphs. Although
would
that Stieglitz
he had Strand's
show
praise
Stieglitz.
He
laid
it
open
New
hoped
work
was not
to be.
at
my work
to attack,
Nancy Newhall, 2
cd.
York: Apertiire, 1973],
House"
Lake George into a darkroom.

Because of his poor health,
and then
loved. Yet
in bathrooms. In 1927 he converted the "Little
as
Stieglitz
stopped pho-
tographing in 1937.
am
For
gained in strength" (The Daybooks of
Edward Weston,
ton,
his
in his Daybooks, "I took
discarded print after print, prints
happy, for
certainly
and promote
six years earlier, that
Weston recorded
to
was written)
equipped darkrooms
Edward Weston (1886-1958) met

fall
letter
ycal.
George,
Stieglitz's definition
of the word "seeing," see
notes 7 and 43.
Ansel Adams, see note 50.
vols. [Miller-
Waldo
2:4). After their
Frank, see note 35.
meeting they carried on a sporadic correspondence
and met again in 1941.

In 1937
Weston was
first
photographer to be
York,
enabled him to travel extensively through the West,

in 1938;
hence
Stieglitz's
painter,
Stieglitz
ica
was somewhat confused about the date
litz
wrote
facilities."
Until 1908
his lack
(thirt)-
social realist
review of the
Stieglitz's seventieth birthday,
Stieglitz:
Collective Portrait.
"America and/or Alfred
mon Sense 4 Qanuary
litz's
was exaggerating
titled
a very critical
Stieglitz,"
1935), 22-24,
Amer-
The
re-
Com-
prompted
this
response from Stieglitz. For further discussion of Stieg-
Stieg-
in this letter.
Stieglitz
graphic
November as
and Alfred
view,
of Weston's marriage to Charis Wilson. They were

married on 24 April 1938, not in
had written
book celebrating
words of con-
gratulations in this letter.
New
2 January J9J5,
YCAL.
Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975),
awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. The grant, which
was extended
Thomas Hart Benton,
56. Letter to
the
relationship with Benton, see Edward
"Alfred Stieglitz and/or
of "photo-
Abrahams,
Thomas Hart Benton,"
Arts
Magazine 55 (June 1981), 108-113.
years before this
Chronology
1864
Bom,
January, Hoboken,
son of Edward and

eldest
1871
1879-1881
1881
New Jersey,
in
Hedwig (Werner),
of six children
New York City

College, New York
Family moved to
Attended City
Edward
Stieglitz, retired
from
took family to Europe; studied
1883
Emerson
for his
English
prize
periodicals;
by Peter Henry
photography
Work
Good
Competition
sponsored by Amateur Photographer
1888
Asked by Emerson
man
Real-
gymnasium, Karlsruhe, Germany

1882-1886
first
Joke in the Holiday
business,
at
German and
awarded
to translate into Ger-
his forthconiing
book
Naturalistic
Photography for Students of the Art; ex-
Studied at the Technische Hochschule,
hibited in Intcmationalcn Ausstellung
Berlin
von Amateur-Photographien, Vienna;
Took
course with Professor
Wilhelm Vogel; began
Hermann
returned to the United States for the
summer;
to photograph
1886
Year of first surviving photographs
1887
First articles
father
Lake George,
and photographs published
1889
238
First articles
bought "Oaklawn,
New
York
published in American pe-
riodicals; exhibited in
Vienna (1904), Washington (1904), and
Photographische
Philadelphia (1906)
Jubilaums Ausstellung, Berlin

1
890
Returned to the United
Summer
States following
1890-1895
Entered into business with Louis Schubart and Joseph
1905
891
New
bition
1893
1893-1896
1894
first
1907
chen in Paris saw Cezanne's watercolors
and Matisse's paintings; experimented

with Lumicre Autochrome process with
Steichen, Eugene,
1907- IS
Europe, visited
Exhibited
Photo Club dc
at the
Exhibited
at
until
1909
Paris
taken to
the Royal Photographic
home of Leo and
of Art Photographers
Picturesque Bits of New York, a portfolio
Gertrude
Union
1910
New York
bom
Emmeline; exhibited
1911
the
Photography"
Art Gallery, Buffalo,
met
Miinich
1913
Secession
Exhibited at the Philadelphia Photo-
1915-1916
graphic Salon
at the
Albright
New York
Summer trip to Europe, visited Munich,

Stuttgart, Lucerne,
to Alfred and
at
Organized "International Exhibition of

Pictorial
Edited Camera Notes, the journal of the
Katherine (Kitty)
Dresden Inter-
in
national Exhibition
of
York and Europe, published by
Camera Club of New York
1898-1900
trip to
Stein; exhibited at International
London
R. H. Russell,
Edward, died; summer
Father,
by
Europe; with Steichen met Matisse and
1906
Stieglitz
the
Club with paintings by Henri, Luks,
from
Peimell
New
1898
work of
shown at National Arts
Glackens, and Sloan, and etchings
of twelve photogravures by
1897-1902
later resigned;
thereafter vmtil 1908
Society,
1897
and
Photo-Secession
1894 through 1899 and intermittently
and intermittently thereafter
1895-1899
of photographs of
Expelled from the Camera Club, reinstated,
Ring, Enghsh association of artistic pho-
1894-1898
a series
nudes
Americans elected to the Linked
tographers; exliibited at their salon
and Kiihn
Winter, collaborated with Clarence H.
White on
Italy,
Germany, Holland, France, and
England; with Rudolph Eickemeyer,

first
Paris,
Photogra-
Editor, American Amaleiir Photogrnpher

trip to
Europe, visited
trip to
international exhi-
Married Emmeline Obermeyer
Summer
Summer
Innsbruck, and Baden-Baden; with Stei-
of "artistic" photography
Austria,
New
in
York; exhibited
Kunstlerischer
Ausstellung
phien, Vieima,
of the Photo-Seces-
Little Galleries
York
Member of the Society of Amateur Photographers of
The
sion founded at 291 Fifth Avenue,
Obermeyer forming the
Photochrome Engraving Company

1
Europe, visited Berlin,
trip to
Dresden, Munich, and London
death of sister Flora
and
Picasso, Matisse,
Paris,
One-man show
at 291,
incide with the
Armory
Assisted
where he
and Rodin
scheduled to coExhibition
Meyer, HavUand, and de Zayas
in publishing 291
1
899
Retrospective
one-man exhibition
at the
1916
Camera Club
1917
1902
Arranged "American
Pictorial
Photog-
1903-1917
1903-1906
1918
Club
Denver
(1903),
Bradford,
including
shows
1920-1924
(1904),
of Stieghtz's
Ehzabeth Davidson
O'Keeffe and Stieghtz lived with Stieghtz's brother Leopold on East 65 th Street,
in
New York
San Francisco (1903),
England
photographs of O'Keeffe;
Stieglitz in the studio
niece,
Organized many exhibitions of the
first
of 291; end of Camera Work
O'Keeffe moved to New York, she lived
with
Pubhshcd Camera Work
Photo-Secession,
Made
close
raphy," maugural exhibition of the Photo-Secession, at the National Arts
Met Georgia O'Keeffe
Dresden
1921
(1904), Paris (1904), Pittsburgh (1904),
Retrospective
son Galleries
239
one-man show
at
Ander-
Began
1922
photograph clouds; mother,
to
Hedwig,
died; family sold
Retrospective
1932
Manuscripts published with Paul Rosen-
One-man show
1924
O'Keeffe and StiegUtz's work shown at
Anderson
Anderson
Galleries;
work by
Galleries
Museum
1936-1942
1937
at
38 East 58th Street,
at
New York
included
Hartley,
ican Place
Ander-
at
litz
1942-1946
Included in "International Exhibition of
1944
Lived
at
exhibition
with
O'Keeffe
An
at
Stieg-
tion
at
Dove,
Marin,
and
American Place
New York
photographs and
his collec-
Stieglitz's
of paintings, drawings, and photo-
graphs
Anonyme, Brooklyn Museum
Museum
An Amer-
photographs; photographs in group
Lived
Art," assembled by the Socicte
Metropolitan
at
Museum of Modem Art acquired
1941
The Intimate Gallery', 489 Park

New York
the Shelton Hotel, New York
Directed
New York
"Beginnings and Land-
in
^Marin, O'Keeffe, Demuth,
Modem
1928
Lived
marks, '291,' 1905-1917."
Avenue,
1926
photographs
Stopped photographing; photographs
son Galleries
1925-1936
Art acquired
Stieglitz
Arranged exhibition oC Seven Americans
Dove, Strand, and Stieghtz
1925-1929
one-man exhibition at An
Museum of
Cleveland
1935
of Fine Arts, Boston,
O'Keeffe and Stieglitz married
Lived
1925
of
American Place
accepted t\venty-seven photographs by

Stieglitz;
acquired
other photographers
Retrospective
1934
awarded Progress
Medal from the Royal Photographic

Society;
Museum of Art
large portion of Stieglitz's collection
1923
1924-1925
Metropolitan
1933
and Herbert J. Seligmann

at
one-man exhibition at An
American Place
George properry
feld
509 Madi-
New York
son Avenue,
but retained smaller house on Lake
1922-1923
An American Place,
Directed
1929-1946
"Oaklawn"
shown
at Philadelphia
Museum
of Art
of Art acquired
1946
Stieghtz photographs
Died
13 July,
New York
Selected Bibliography
The following bibliography
lists
Abrahams, Edward.
Metropolitan Museum
only the
most recent and readily available publications on Stieghtz and his activities. For
phies, the reader
with an
asterisk.
is
more
era
Work
nos.
The most important contemporary

Alfred Stieglitz:
1-6 (1897-
Series.
New York: DaCapo Press, 1978; Cam1-50 (1903-1917).
reprint,
(1915-1916), reprint.
Manuseripis, nos.
New York: Amo
ton,
Nendeb,
Liechtenstein: Krauss Reprints, 1969; 291, nos.
and
1979), 86-89.
works marked
sources for Stieglitz are: Camera Notes

1902), reprint.
0une
extensive bibliogra-
referred to those
"Alfred Stieghtz and the
of Art." Arts Magazine 53
The Aperture History of Photography
Introduction by Dorothy
New
York: Aperture,
Norman.
Millcr-
197<5.
1-12
Bry, Doris.
Press, 1972;
Alfred Stieglitz: Photographer. Boston:
Museum of Fine
1-6 (1922-1923).
240
Arts, 1965.
Bunnell, Peter C.
rial
JussiM, Estellb. "Icons or Iconology:
Photographic Vision: Picto-
grine Smith, 1980.
New
Morgan and Morgan,
New York: Light Impressions,
1978.
York:
1971.
JussiM, EsTELLE. "Technology or
tography
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969.
Dover
(January 1979), 81-92.
Krauss, Rosalind.
Photo-Secession: Photography as a
New York:
Leonard, Neil.
Text by
"Saeg]itz/Equivalents." Octo-
(Winter 1979), 129-140.
ber no. 11
Press,
1978.
Exhibition of Photographs by Alfred Stieglitz.
Aesthetics: Al-
fred Stieglitz and Photogravure." History of Pho-
DijKSTRA, Bram. The Hieroglyphics of a New Speech.
Fine Art. i960. Reprint.
Liebling, ed. Massachusetts Review.
Reprint. Rochester,
as a Fine Art.
1901. Reprint. Hastings-on-Hudson,
Doty, Robert.
Jerome
tives."
Caffin, Charles H. Photography
StiegUtz
and Hine." in "Photography: Current Perspec-
Photography, iSSg-igzj. Salt Lake City: Pere-
"Alfred Srieglitz and Reahsm."
Art Quarterly 29 (1966), 277-286.
Doris Bry. Washington: National Gallery of Art,

*
1958.
Frank, Waldo,
litz:
litz:
et
a.\.,
America and Alfred Stieg-
eds.
New York:
Aperture, 1979.
Portrait by Alfred Stieglitz. Intro-
duction by Georgia O'Keeffe.

politan
* Green,
New York: Metro-
Museum of Art.
1978.
Jonathan,
Camera Work:
Anthology. Millerton,
Greenough, Sarah
ed.
A Critical
the
Pacific
Stieglitz
Institute, 1981.
the
Seligmann, Herbert
New
New
Literature."
Coast Philology 6 (April 1971), 26-34.
J. Alfred Stieglitz Talking.
Haven: Yale University Library, 1966.
Tasjian, Dickran.
Skyscraper Primitives:
Dada
and the American Avant-Garde: igw-ig2}. Middle-
Alfred Stieglitz and
American Avant-Garde. Boston:
the Invention of Photo-
graphic Meaning." Artforum 13 (January 1975),
37-45-
and the
American
Homer, William Inness.
New York: Met-
1978.
Norman, Dorothy. Alfred Stieglitz: An American Seer. New York: Aperture, 1973.
Sekula, Allan. "On
American
Art Journal 41 (Spring 1981), 46-54.
in
Museum of Art,
Massachusetts: Sterling and Francine Clark Art
Earth: Alfred Stieglitz's Photographs of Apples."
Order of Consciousness
Collection of Alfred Stieg-
Pultz, John, and Catherine B. Scallen.
Aperture, 1973.
"From
Haines, Robert E. "Alfred
The
ofPhotography.
Cubism and American Photography. Williamstown,
New York:
E.
Fifty Pioneers
ropohtan
A Collective Portrait. 1934. Reprint. Millerton,
Georgia O'Kceffe:
Weston J.
Naef,
New York
town, Connecticut: Wcsleyan University
Graphic Society, 1977.
Press,
1975.
Exhibition Checklist
Whenever known,
Stieglitz first
used are those that
National Gallery of Art accession numbers, and for
gave to the photographs. The date im-
those photographs reproduced in this volume, a par-
mediately following the

ative
was made.
made over
is
the
titles
title is
If the print
the date
is
when
known
the neg-
enthetical illustration
is
also given.
Early European
ten years after the negative date, this date
given following the identification of the printing
process. In the listing
number
to have been
1.
of measurements, height pre-
Good Joke,
(478
cedes width, and dimensions are given in millimeters
2.
1887, platinum print, 117
X 5%), D
Italian
Mason
(Bellagio), 1887,
platinum print,
174 X 95 (678 X 3%), D 34 (no.
followed parenthetically by inches, "d" numbers are
241
x 148
30.
5).
3.
4.
Sun Rays-Paula, 1889, platinum
print, 1916,
232 X 185 (9% X 7%), D 57 (no.
8).
At Bianilz, 1890, platinum
27.
Self-Porlrait (Cortina), 1890,
6.
A Street in Sterzing,
X 179 (574 X
print, 228
7.
A
A
16.
(8
i66x
32.
136.
X 5%). D 145
(7% X 5%), D
Mom,
X 144
33.
(no. 9)-
5),
D 259
1894, palladium print,
D 172
9),
(4/^4
c.
The
Flat-iron, 1902,
4),
Scurrying
From
My Window-New
x
to the Post,
X 264
The
36.
After Working
37.
x 70
ioy8),
38.
City
39.
(2% X 3%), D
22.
X 13 y,), D
The Terminal, 1893,
The
yj
X 4y2). D
X 93
(3y8
43.
X 3%), D 84
The Rag
1920s or 1930s, 87 X 77
25.
(3% X
Five Points-New York, 1893

print, 1920s or 1930s,
(?),
3),
112 x 92
[4.^^
44.
'^
New New
loTi)'
gelatin silver
92x119 (3y8X4%), d 87.
45.
242
3y8),
3^-
gelatin silver print,
X 116 (3% X 4%), D
310.
York, 1910, photogravure,
X257 (uVg xioy^), D
311.
Outward Bound, The Mauretania, 1910, photo-
313.
Untitled-The Ferry Boat, i9io(?), gelatin

1
19 x 91 (4^^ x
sil-
3 ]{},
315 (no. 17).
Untitled- Horses, Winter, i9io(?), gelarin
sil-
89x114 (3/^x47,),
327.
From
the
Back-Window-" 291" -Buildings
Snow, 1915, pladnum
85.
(no. 16).
Old and
D
Picker, 1893(7), gelatin silver print,
x 92
the River, 1910, gelarin silver
ver print, 1920s or 1930s,
(no. 11).
24.
Ferry Boat, 19x0,
306.
Lower Manhattan, 1910,
75-
Street Paver, 1893, gelarin silver print,
1920s or 1930s, 80
(no. 18).
ver print, 1920s or 1930s,
gelatin silver print, 1920s
(3
280.
gravure, 333 x 259 (i3y8 x 10%),

42.
74.
or 1930s, 91 X 115
23.
41.
93 (no. 12).
The Terminal, 1893, photogravure, 255 x 336

(10
X 10%), D
The City of Ambition, 1910, photogravure,
333
77,),
(no. 15).
Hours-The
1920s or 1930s, 91
40.
91.
Winter-Fifth Avenue, 1 893 carbon print, 1 894,
266.
photogravure, 320 x 257
D 292
The City Across
D 307
Winter- Fifth Avenue, 1893, gelatin silver print,
(9
(i2y8
194-
New York
Morris Park, 1904, photogra-
Steerage, 1907,
UVs X 3%), D
print, 83
6),
gelarin silver print, 1920s or 1930s, 113
220.
Home, 1894, platinum
York, 1902, photo-
(6% X
153
(9% X 12%), D 269
Going
35.
platinum print, 74 x 103
272.
The Hand of Man, 1902, photogravure, 242 x
(12% X
(no. 2).
Gossip -Katwyk, 1894, carbon print, 178 x 282
230 X 184
21.
photogravure, 327 x 167
x 6%), D
vure, 308
1921,
(no. 3).
X 5%), D 174
1920s or 1930s, 64 X 87
20.
x 127
(no. 13).
(1275
340 X 260 (1378
19.
{}% x 4%),
Spring Showers, 1901, photogravure, 310
318
34.
(3y4X2y4), D205.
Early
87 x 109
262.
gravure, 171
163 (no. 6).
the Dykes, 1894,
Mad-
Sunlight Effect (Gutach), 1894, platinum print,
On
11 11
Avenue, Looking South, 1899, gelatin silver
(i2y8
Cutach Peasant Girl, 1 894, platinum print, 1 88 x
(7X 11%), D
18.
A Street in Bellagio, 1894, platinum print, 199 x
{lYg
17.
1 64
x 118
(no. 14).
Sunday Afternoon-From My Window,
31.
(6% x 8%), D
121
The Savoy Hotel-New York, 1898, platinum
(no. 4).
Refections -Venice, 1894, platinum print,
Early
York, 1898, carbon print,
131.
168 X 228 (eyg x

15.
29.
108.
894, platinimi print,
sil-
w).
Night-New
(3y8X4y8). D256
(5% x
Venice, 1894,
142
14.
(no. 7).
X iiya), D
(6/^,
1896, gelatin
print tinted with yellow pigment, 93
30.
148 (778
13
platinum
the Boulevard-Paris, 1894, car-
(6%X5%), DI17
211
12.
D 64
e'/g),
172 X 297
Venetian Gamin,
6%), D
11.
(no.
Icy
ison
print,
132
10.
(9
28.
Tyrol, 1890,
c.
262 X 343 (10% X 13%), D 254.
63.
The
An
68.
Wet Day on
bon
9.
7),
platinum print,
Weary, 1890, platinum print, 147 x 203

8),
8.
X 162
D 248
x 140
print, 59
5.
Untitled- Subway Entrance,
ver print, 1920s or 1930s, 111 X 85 (4y8X3y8),
(no. 1).
(ly^xsVz)'^ 59
133
26.
print, 245
in
x 195 (9% x
7%), D 369From the Back- Window-" 291"- Snow-Covcrcd
Tree, Back-Yard, April 1915,
platinum print,
66.
Helen Freeman, 1922, palladium print, 195 x
67.
John Marin, 1922, palladium
245 (778 X 9%), D 461.
246 X 195 [9% X 7%), D 371.

46.
47.
From the Back-Wmdow-" 291," 1915, platinum

print,
244 X 194 (9% X 7%), D 372 (no. 21).
From
the
(978
68.
Back-Window-" 291," I9i5-i9i<5,
69.
(no. 20).
48.
From
Back-Window-" 291" -Building
the
Construction, 1916,
(p'/a
49.
From
in
D 404 (no. 19).

Back-Window-" 291" - Wall
70.
the
D 508
print,
778).
240 x 193
(no. 31)-
Sherwood Anderson, 1923 palladium
D 574
print,
244
(no. 33).
Charles Demuth, 1923, palladium print, 193
243 (778 x 972).
Marcel Duchamp,
1 923 ,
x 191 (778 X
772).
772).
583.
gelatin silver print, 202
586 (no. 32).
Closing
platinum print, 240 x 180 (9% x
In, 1916,
778),
X 193 (978 X
D 403
platinum print, 245 x 195 (9% x 7%),
Georgia O'Keeffe
7%), D 400.
71.
Portraits
72.
platinum
print,
245 x 195
50.
Self-Portrait, 1907,
51.
Arthur G. Dove, 1911-1912, platinum print,
52.
240 x 192 {gVi X 7/4), D 318 (no. 26).

Paul Haviland, 1913, platinum print, 247 x 200
(9% X
(P'A
53.
778).
303 (no. 22).
X fA), D
73.
74.
76.
d 374
77.
195
print,
X 245 (7% X
9^^),
55.
56.
472).
D 1409
(no. 43)-
D 1415
778).
778).
773).
1364-
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1919, palladium print, 23d

193 (97.
D 1416.
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1919, palladium print, 239
(no. 38).
D 1366
(no. 40).
79.
x 195
80.
236 (778 X 974). D 1440 (no. 39).

Georgia O'Keeffe, 1919, palladium print, 244 x
Marsden Hartley, 1915-1916, platinum print,
81.
(p'/s
X 7%), D 354
(no. 28).
Francis Picabia, 1915, platinum print, 245
{9% X 7%), D
58.
78.
247 x 194 {9% x 7%), D 379.
Charles Demuth, 1915, platinum print, 244
194
57.
print,
193 (978
Katharine N. Rhoades at "291," 6 June 1915,
platinum
(372
Georgia O'Keeffe, 191 8, palladium print, 240
193 (972
(no. 23).
35).
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1918, gelatin silver print, 90
192 (978 X 772).
X 244 (7% X 9%), D 352.

"291" -Picasso-Braque Exhibition, 1915, plat-
X 7%). D 1374.
X 115
75.
343-
1338.
190 (97, X 772), D 1392 (no.
Brancusi Exhibition at "291," 1914, platinum
inum

193 (972
print, 194
54.
193 (972 X 778).
197 (978 X 7%), D 1465.
363 (no. 34).
246 X 195 {9% X
y'/s).
D 356
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1919(?), palladium print, 244
X 194 (978 X
(no. 24).
778).
1450.
59.
Marie Rapp, 1916, platinum print, 244 x 193
82.
60.
(9% X 7%), D 377 (no. 25).

Hodge Kirnon, 1917, palladium
247 x
83.
197 (974 X 7%). D 1458.

Georgia O'Keeffc, 4jime 1917, platinum print,
84.
199
61.
{9% X
y'/s).
D 407
243 X 194 (9/2 X 778).

62.
print,
201 (978 X 77s)< D 1461.
(no. 30).
D 1329
245 x 198
85.
The Last Days of "291," 1917. palladium print,
86.
Emil Zoler, 1917, palladium
print,
Dorothy True, 1919, gelatin

191 (972
65.
772).
778),
silver print,
241 x
87.
(no. 37).
Georgia O'Keeffe, i92o(?), palladium print, 243
Georgia O'Keeffe, l92o(?), gelatin silver print,
Georgia O'Keeffe, i92o(?), gelarin silver print,
210 X 133 (87, X 574), D 1468 (no. 41).
438-
Laurvik, i92o(?),
J. Nilsen
X181 (9% X
D 1463
239 X 191 (973 X 772), D 1561.
245 X 194 (9Vs X 778). 416 (no. 27).

64.
77;).
X 194 (972 X 7%). D 1464-
(9y8X7y4)-D4l363.
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1 920 (?) palladium print, 245
X 198 (978 X
(no. 29).
platinum print, 23 8
88.
194 (978 X 773).
417-
243
1481.
245
(y'/s
X 9%), D 1492
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1921
Georgia O'Keeffe,
91
(?),
(3%x4y2), D
87 X 116
X 116 (3% X
113.
1453.
D 1501
114.
115.
116.
192 (9/2 X 7Vz)' D 1530.
96.
(9'/2
7'/,),
House,
(3% X
100.
119.
120.
Lake George, 1931, gelatin
Gary Ross, 1932, gelatin
(97.
122.
the Lake, 1916, gelatin silver print,
X 89 (4% X 3%), D 382
123.
(no. 48).
Georgia Engelhard, 1920, gelatin silver print,
124.
102.
The
Way Art Moves,
245 X 193
103.
126.
1920, gelatin silver print,
(9% x 7%), D
193 (972
Hedwig
X 7%), D 471
1921
Stieglitz,
(?),
Barn,
c.
127.
7y8)>
128.
silver print,
r>
Grasses, 1933, gelatin silver print,
189 X 239
(7% x 9%), D
740.
House, 1933, gelatin silver print, 186

974)-
House,
c.
Little
Door to
1933, gelatin silver print, 240
X 7%), D 771
Kitchen, 1934, gelatin silver print, 241
(972
778).
Automobile, 1935, gelatin silver print, 195
Equivalents
190 (9y8 X jY^), d 476 (no.
(7y8
129.
(no. 50).
51).
130.
Rebecca Strand, 1922-1923, gelatin silver print,
D 556
Spiritual America, 1923, gelatin silver print,
110.
First
silver print,
D 845
131.
(no. 54).
Music:
(972
132.
(?),
Sequence of Ten Cloud Photographs,
9y8),
D 828
772).
x 118
(3%x4y8),D6io.
244
Music:
VL
(972
silver print,
242 x 192
832.
778).
No.
x 240
(no. 56).
No. V, 1922, gelatin
the Little House, 1923, gelatin
190 x 240 (7'^ x 9%), D 624
Bamside, 1923
Music:
(972
(no. 53).
111.
I,
No. IV, 1922, gelatin
(no. 46).
109.
Snow and
x 1S9
115 X 92 (472 X iVs)'
silver
778.
No.
4y8).
766.
House and Grape Leaves, 1934, gelatin
X 19s
(no. 52).
Music:
x 236
744-
245 (7y8 X 9y8). D 782.
478.
X 7%), D 496
(iV^
x 188
736.
Dancing Trees, 1922, palladium print, 240 x
x 117
x 185
728.
107.
91
235 x 185
Georgia Engelhard, 1922, palladium print, 245 x
108.
188
724-
106.
193 {9Vs
92 x
Hedge and
print, 243
(no. 47)-
(9% X 1%), D
188 (972 X 7y8),
441.
112x91 (4y8X3y2), D475105.
774).
188 (9y8
(no. 49)-
Margaret Treadwell, 1921, palladium print, 243
X
104.
125.
774).
Grass, 1933, gelatin silver print, 244
(774
Waldo Frank, 1920, palladium print, 244 x 192
X 7%), D 500
silver print,
Poplars, 1932, gelatin silver print, 236
(9% X
(no. 45).
Paul Strand, 1919, palladium print, 245 x 195
(.9Vs
silver print,
240 (7y8 X 9y8). D 726.
1623.
236 x 190 (9% x 7%), D 459.

101.
x 92
(3%x4y8), D713-
(974
(Pysxyys), D411
(no. 55)-
Lake George, 1931, gelatin
121.
99.
D 1185
Richard, 1931, gelatin silver print, 117
Lake George
113
4y8),
D695-
Tree, Set B, c. 1930, gelatin silver print, 93
118
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1935, gelatin silver print,
Shadows on
118.
240 X 191 (9% X jY^), d 1644.
98.
c.
House, 1931, gelatin silver priru, 114 x 91
1612.
242 X 191
972).'"d 826.
(472^^ 372). D711-
1S9 X 238 (7% X 9Vg),
x 241
c.
84 x
117.
X3y2), D 1520.
(4'/,
print,
629.
(4y8X3y8). D710.
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1924(?), gelatin silver print,
X91
Little
118
115
Moon,
113 (372X4y8).
(no- 44).
92 X 118 {i% X 4%), D 1514 (no. 42).
94-
(374x4%), D
(77.
c.
Long Underwear, 1 924, gelatin silver

107
c.
^y^)'
Georgia O'Keeffe,
112.
(no. 36).
silver print,
242 x 193
833.
778).
834.
x 194
133-
Music:
No. VIII, 1922, gelatin
D 836
{9V X y'A).
134.
156.
(no. 57).
378).
4%), D 905
157.
90 x 117
137.
Equivalent, 1925, gelatin silver print,
Later
(478X3%). D
17
933-
Equivalents, 1927, gelatin silver print, 92
(379x473), D 1005
141.
Equivalent,
c.
x
160.
W, No.
1929(?), gelatin
1,
161.
Equivalent, Set
print, 117
Equivalent,
W, No.
91 (478
silver print,
d 1051
3 '/^),
W, No.
Set
(no. 64).
162.
1929(?), gelatin
3,
119 x 91 (479 x 3y4), D 1052
W, No.
Set
163.
1929(7), gelatin
4,
119 x 91 {4^^ x 3%), d 1053
146.
118
(4% x
XX, No.
x 92
(478
378).
(4/^3
XX, No.
3,
165.
1055.
x 189 (9% x
From
My
1206.
Window
9%), D 1201.
From My Window
at the
Shelton- Southeast,
x 240 (yYg x
at the
Shelton-West, 1931,
x 193 (9% x 773),
From
(no. 72).
My
Window at An American
77b).
d 1230
From
My
Place, North,
x 193 (9% x
(no. 71).
Window
From
An
An American Place,
at
North,
x 192 (9'^ x
1056.
d
^
166.
Equivalent, Series
sUver print, 117
Equivalent, Series
silver print,
XX, No.
93 (473
XX, No.
8,
p,
From An American
Place, Southwest, 1932, gel-
240 x 191 {g^g x
7'y^),
d 1237
From An American
Place, Southwest,
1933
(?),
x 191 (9'^ x 7%),
(no. 69).
168.
187 x 237 (jY^ x 9%), D 1242.

From An American Place, North, c. 1933, gelatin
silver print,
169.
170.
1929, gelatin
171.
x 7%),
(9'/^
From An American Place, North,
^^^
373),
I93i(?),
x 187
167.
1929, gelatin
119 x 92 (473 x iY^)'
Place, Nort/i(?),
c.
1933, gelatin
silver print,
92 x 117 (373 x 478). D 1060.

7,
(?),
x 7%),
(9'y^
1208.
D 1245
1058.
5, 1929(?), gelatin
XX, No.
191
(no. 70).
From An American
1057.
(4% x 3%), D 1059.

XX, No. 6, 1929(7), gelatin
Equivalent, Series
(no. 68).
1929, gelatin
378).
American Place, Nort/i(?), 1931
atin silver print,
1929, gelatin
379).
4,
1929, gelatin
(no. 61).
154.
118 x 90
Equivalent, Series
silver print,
153.
An American Place, North,
at
(no. 67).
1929, gelatin
37e).
2,
XX, No.
119 x 93
Equivalent, Series
silver print,
152.
117 x 92
Equivalent, Series
silver print,
151.
1,
{4% x
XX, No.
Equivalent, Series
164.
1929, gelatin silver
118 x 92
Equivalent, Series
silver print,
150.
5,
XX, No.
Equivalent, Series
silver print,
149.
W, No.
X 92 (4% X 3%), D 1054
silver print,
148.
773),
D 1207
silver print,
147.
City
Window
(no. 66).
Equivalent, Set
print, 118
x 90
7%). D 1232.
Equivalent,
silver print,
145.
My
1931. gelatin silver print, 242
(no. 65).
144.
From
1929, gelatin silver
2,
New York
D 1229
118 x 92 (479 x 378). d 1050
(no. 63).
143.
Equivalent, 1931, gelatin silver print, 118
D 1183.
Set
silver print,
159.
x 117
(no. 59).
93 (478x373),
142.
x 92
(no. 62).
x 118
(3%X4%), D989.
Equivalent,
D 1087
x 93
158.
140.
373).
(no. 58).
Equivalent, 1925, gelatin silver print,
139.
(473X372). D 1092.
136.
138.
n8 x
(473
841.
Songs of the Sky, 1924(?), 93 x 118 (iY^
Equivalent, 1929(7), gelatin silver print,
92 (478 X 378). D 1025 (no. 60).
Songs of the Sky, 1923, gelatin silver print,
118x93 (4% X
135.
155.
240 x 190
silver print,
1062.
the Shelton,
print,
244 x 192
From
the Shelton,
119 x 92 (473 x i%), D 1063.
245
West, 1935, gelatin silver
(9=78
X 7%), D 1253
(no. 73).
print,
244 X 190 (973 x jy^), D 1255.
From
the Shelton,
print, 243
1929, gelatin
189 x 242 (773 x 9%), d 1244.
From
x 191
{9^2
7/2).
1260.
List of Plates
At
Biarritz, iSgo (exii. 4)
Georgia O'Keeffe, igig (exh. 78)
Sunlight Effect, Gutach, iSg4 (exh. 15)
Georgia O'Keeffe, ig20? (exh. 87)
Early Morn, iSg4 (exh. 14)
Georgia O'Keeffe, ig2i ? (exh. 92)
Venetian Gamin, iSg4 (exh. 9)
Italian
Mason,
Georgia O'Keeffe, igiS (exh. 74)
Georgia O'Keeffe, ig2i? (exh. 91)
Bellagio, 1S87 (exh. 2)
Gutach Peasant Girl, iSg4 (exh. 13)
Shadows on
Rebecca Strand, ig22-ig2j (exh. 108)
Street in Sterzing, the Tyrol, iSgo (exh. 6)
Sun Rays, Paula, iSSg (exh.
Margaret Treadwell, ig2i (exh. 103)
3)
Paul Strand, igig (exh. 99)
Street in Bellagio, iSg4 (exh. 12)
[The Subway
The
Waldo Frank, ig20
Entrance], iSg6? (exh. 26)
Street Paver, iSgj (exh. 23)
Dancing Trees, ig22 (exh. 107)
Winter, Fifth Avenue, iSgy (exh. 20)
New
The City
The
across the River, igio (exh. 37)
Back-Window, "291," Building
Tree Set B, igjo? (exh. 115)
the
the
No.
ig22 (exh. 129)
I,
No. VIII, ig22 (exh. 133)

Songs of the Sky, ig24? (exh. 135)
Back-Window, "291," igi^-igiO
Equivalents, ig2y (exh. 139)
(exh. 47)
From
Music:
Music:
in
Construction, igi6 (exh. 48)
From
House, ig2j (exh. 110)
the Little
Spiritual America, ig23 (exh. 109)
Ferry Boat], igio? (exh. 42)
the
Snow and
First
Steerage, igoy (exh. 35)
From
House, igjj? (exh. 125)
Little
York, iSgS (exh. 28)
The Hand of Man, igo2 (exh. 33)
[The
(exh. 101)
Georgia Engelhard, ig22 (exh. 106)
Spring Showers, igoi (exh. 30)
The Savoy Hotel,
the Lake, igi6 (exh. 98)
Back-Window, "291," igi^ (exh. 46)
Equivalent, ig2g? (exh. 155)
XX, No.
Self-Portrait, igoy (exh. 50)
Equivalent, Scries
"291," Picasso-Braque Exhibition, igi$ (exh. 54)
Equivalent, igjl (exh. 156)
Marsden Hartley, igis-igi6 (exh. 58)
Equivalent, Set
W, No.
1,
ig2g? (exh. 141)
Marie Rapp, igi6 (exh. 59)
Equivalent, Set
W, No.
2,
ig2g (exh. 142)
Equivalent, Set
W, No.
3, ig2g? (exh. 143)
Equivalent, Set
W, No.
4,
ig2g? (exh. 144)
Equivalent, Set
W, No.
5,
ig2g (exh. 145)
The Last Days of "291," igij
(exh. 63)
Arthur G. Dove, igil-igi2 (exh. 51)

Charles Demuth, igis (exh. 56)
Georgia 0'Keeffe,June
Hodge Kimon, igij
4,
igij (exh. 61)
From An American
(exh. 60)
7,
ig2g (exh. 152)
Place, Southwest, igj2
(exh. 165)
John Marin, ig22 (exh. 67)
From
An
American Place, Southwest, igjj?
Marcel Duchamp, ig23 (exh. 70)
(exh. 166)
Sherwood Anderson, ig2j (exh. 68)
[From
Francis Picabia, igis (exh. 57)
From
An American Place,
My
Window
Georgia O'Keeffe, igiS (exh. 73)
igji (exh. 161)
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1921 (exh. 89)
From
Georgia O'Keeffe, ig20? (exh. 84)
(exh. 160)
Georgia O'Keeffe, igiS (exh. 7j)
From
Georgia O'Keeffe, igig (exh. 79)
246
My
Window
at
An
North], igji? (exh. 163)
American Place, North,
at the Shelton,
West, igji
the Shelton, West, igjs (exh. 169)
Alfred Stieglitz: Photographs
& Writings
published in conjunction with the exhibition
is
Alfred Stieglitz
National Gallery of Art, Washington -January 30 -
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New
York June
28
May
1,
1983
- September
11, 1983
This catalogue was produced by the Editors OfEce,

National Gallery of Art, Washington.
The
letterpress
composition and printing in Monotype
by The Stinehour
The
Press,
Bembo
Lunenburg, Vermont.
by The Meriden Gravure Company, Meriden, Connecticut.
plates printed
The paper
manufactured by
is
Binding by Pubhshers
Book
Bindery,
Mohawk
Long
Mills, Inc.
Island City,
New
York.
Design by Eleanor Morris Caponigro.
copyright
1983
by the board of trustees,
National Gallery of Art, Washington

All rights reserved.
No
part of this publication
may
be reproduced
without written permission of the National Gallery of Art, Wasliington, D.C. 20565.
The softcover edition of this book is published by the National Gallery of Art.
The hardcover edition is copublished with Callaway Editions,

421 Hudson St. at St. Luke's Place, New York City 10014.
LIBRARY OP CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Stieglitz, Alfred,
Alfred
1864-1946.
photographs
Stieglitz,
& writings.
"Published as a complement to the exhibition to be
mounted by
1
May
the National Gallery of Art, 30 January
1983"
Bibliography; pp. 240-241

1.
Photography,
Alfred, 1864-1946.
II.
Artistic
I.
Hamilton, Juan.
Exhibitions.
2.
Stieglitz,
Greenough, Sarah, 1951-
ni. National Gallery of Art (U.S.)
IV. Title.
TR647.S84
77o'.92'4
1983
ISBN 0-89468-027-7 (softcover)

ISBN 0-935-112-09-X (hardcover)
cover:
Georgia O'Keeffe:
82-7925
AACR2
A Portrait, Hand and
first edition
Wheel (1935).

Alfred Stieglitz - Photographs and Writings (Art Ebook)

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NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY A GENEROUS GRANT FROM

Alfred Stieglitz and

The Idea Photography'^

with great pleasure

that the National Gallery

most comprehensive exhibition yet mounted of this photographer's work. Although

recognized, our understand-

been forgotten in the years since

death in 1946, but there have been few opportunities to

range of his work.

photography has assumed an increasingly

appropriate to reevaluate the accompHsh-

ments of this master American photographer.

"key set" of his work

and photography, Georgia O'Keeffe generously donated the

to the National Gallery

put several hundred portraits of

by Stieghtz between 1917 and 1937 on long term loan and

lection includes at least

sixteen hundred, the Gallery's Stieghtz Col-

one print of every image that was

in the photographer's possession at

not Miss O'Keeffe's oidy concern in

complete work. But comprehensiveness was

the gift; she

care and effort Stieghtz had invested in personally printing and

This exhibition has been

Gallery's Stieghtz holdings.

The National GaOery is indebted

Miss O'Keeffe for more than her

much time and energy to

the preparation of this exhibition,

grateful to her for her

Greenough and Juan Hamilton have

photographs to be exhibited and repro-

word of recognition and thanks

due Ms. Greenough for the care and insight

in organizing the Gallery's Stieghtz Collection

Her introductory essay and her selection of Stieghtz's own

Springs Industries, through

support to the exhibition.

many previously unpub-

Walter Y. Ehsha, has contributed

are grateful to Springs for the company's continuing

this exhibition and catalogue

to demystify Alfred Stieglitz: to

the label of prophet so frequently and uncritically applied to

comprehensive selection of his photographs and writings, to present him

hours both in Washington and

we chose the photographs to be exhibited and reproduced. Our aim was to

an inclusive selection of StiegUtz's work in order to demonstrate the evolution of both

Mr. Hamilton and

tried to maintain a balance

between works never before

nevertheless central to the development

our intention only to include reproductions of the highest

We entrusted Eleanor Caponigro and the staff of Meriden Gravure Com-

and they deserve

reproducing Stieghtz's images. Ms. Caponigro

to be thanked for the design