By Susana Garcia
Stieglitz was an American photographer and a modern art promoter. He was
born on January 1, 1864 in Hoboken, New Jersey. He worked hard in the
idea to promote fine art and was the creator of two periodicals, Camera
Notes and Camera Work. His attention to principles of composition and
design were instrumental in advancing photography as a modern visual art.
Over his 50-year career, Stieglitz helped to transform photography from a
technology for visual reproduction into an expressive art form like painting,
sculpture, and graphic arts.
He contributed a lot to the acceptance of photography as a form of art.
Alfred Stieglitz created the first article for the Amateur Photographer in
1887. He founded the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth
Avenue in New York, which later became known simply as 291. Stieglitz
began photographing Georgia O’Keeffe a famous painter whom he worked
with and later became his wife. One of the expensive photographs of Alfred
was a print of Georgia O’Keeffe. In February 2006, it was sold for 1.47
million dollars. Stieglitz passed away on July 13, 1946.
Hortensia 1898
Katherine, Stieglitz‘s Daughter
1907 Autochromes
Sharp focus, texture, and contrast
Black & white, the focal point is
the hand, sharp focus
Overhead light, texture of the pears,
black background for contrast, and
round brass bowl
The Steerage, 1907
“On the upper deck, looking over
the railing, there was a young
man with a straw hat. The shape
of the hat was round. He was
watching the men and women
and children on the lower
steerage deck…A round straw
hat, the funnel leaning left, the
stairway leaning right, the white
drawbridge with its railing made
of circular chains – white
suspenders crossing on the back
of a man in the steerage below,
round shapes of iron machinery,
a mast cutting into the sky,
making a triangular shape…I saw
shapes related to each other. I
saw a picture of shapes and
underlying that the feeling I had
about life."
Clawing hands, fingers pressing into flesh
Georgia O’Keeffe's posed hands by Alfred
Stieglitz sold for $1.472 million.

He used two cameras to do his work: an 8" x 10" Eastman View with a Packard Shutter and a 4" x 5"
Auto Graflex with old Goerz lenses.

Stieglitz's photogravures are generally unsigned, and were printed under his supervision, sometimes
using silver gelatin and platinum prints

Majority of Stieglitz's photographs are vintage. Vintage means that the print date is at or near the
same time as the negative date.

General Format: 5" x 7" photogravures

Stieglitz used natural elements such as smoke, rain, snow, and natural light to capture most of his
images as well as soft light.

Various techniques included: gelatin , lantern slides and autochromes . Stieglitz also toned his prints
with gold, platinum and palladium prints. Sometimes he would use mercury toning for warmer color

“Straight photograph” – images taken with smaller cameras and little manipulation.
The Flatiron, The Terminal,
Georgia O’Keeffe- Neck
 The Flatiron-This photograph works because it looks like a pictorialism
piece of art. This image was
dated 1903, the medium was photogravure and its dimensions were17.0 x 8.4 cm. The light most likely was natural
light. This photograph looks soft with the snow on the trees and on the floor, giving it a gloomy and cold feel to it.
Stieglitz used the rule of thirds on this photograph. It almost looks like it is overlapped on top of the building behind
it . You can also see repeated pattern with the benches in the park and leading lines from the branches in the
surrounding trees. Stieglitz does a good job at demonstrating its psychological view point of this cold and gloomy
day, with the light contrast of the building and the dark color in the tree trunk.
 The Terminal- This photograph was taken using a 4 x 5 plate film camera, it was a hand held Folmer
and Schwing camera. Dated 1893, the medium was photogravure and the dimensions were 12.1 x 16.0 cm. This
image reflects a glimpse of the past with the horses and carriages on the street. You can see a little pictorialism and a
modern look in this photograph. The steam surrounding the horses give it a soft painting look, while it also
demonstrates urban life. Stieglitz captured a moment in time in this photograph. He managed to give this photo a
natural feel in his point of view. There is texture in the snowy ground, and the number of horses also create
depth while the building in the back tells us he took the photograph from a side position rather than a front view.
 Georgina O’Keeffe- Neck-
Dated 1921 , medium was palladium print, gelatin silver
print, with dimensions of 23.6 x 19.2 cm. In this photograph Stieglitz uses the females neck as his subject.
He uses framing and close ups in this image. He used soft light to soften the image giving it a sense of
delicacy and softness. It was more of a composite portrait like many others he had done of O’Keeffe using
her body as his main subject not as offensive art but rather as a way to demonstrate beauty. His
psychological view point is tender, and delicate one. “Stieglitz attempted to record O'Keeffe in all her
physical and emotional dimensions.”
I chose Stieglitz because he was one of the first photographers in America to begin a
movement that inspired all different forms of art. He advocated for photography as a
form of art in America. Stieglitz changed the art of photography by bringing new
ideas. He captured images in different types of weather and photographed things that
spoke to him. I also chose to examine Stieglitz because of the style and subject
matter he chose to photograph. He decided to photograph more than 300
photographs of O'Keeffe alone and has beautiful photographs of landscapes, he
captured in the moment, clouds, and different body parts, as well as photographs of
people in general. His art style began as a pictorialist and changed overtime to more
of a modernist style. Some of his images have both, a soft touch of pictorialism and
then the sharp contrast of modernism a good example I think would be the
photograph known as “The Terminal.” What appealed to me the most about Stieglitz
was his change of style. He was not afraid to try new things and decided to do many
nudes of O'Keeffe in a time when it was not common. He used O'Keeffe his wife
body as his main subject. Author Miles Orvell writes “Stieglitz broke with
conventions, by not romanticizing the female nude, but rather, exposing its intimate
character, through unusual close-ups and framings.”
-“I was born in Hoboken. I am an American. Photography is my
passion. The search for truth is my obsession.”
-“The ability to make a truly artistic photograph is not acquired offhand, but is the result of an artistic instinct coupled with years of labor.”
-“I have a vision of life, and I try to find equivalents for it in the form of
photography.”
-“The goal of art was the vital expression of self.”

"Alfred Stieglitz." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 16 Apr. 2015
<http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Alfred Stieglitz." New World Encyclopedia, . 3 Sep 2008, 14:27 UTC. 16 Apr 2015, 21:15
<http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Alfred_Stieglitz&oldid=798496>.
 "Alfred Stieglitz." Pinterest. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.

Lee, Mack. "Information." Information. Lee Gallery, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.

Mann Pailet, Joshua. A Gallery for Fine Photography. N.p., 1999. Web.

"PICTORIALISM: From Stieglitz to Curtis." Matthews Gallery Blog. N.p., 21 Feb. 2015. Web.
16 Apr. 2015.

Stieglitz, Alfred (1942). "How The Steerage Happened". Twice a Year (8–9): 175–178.

Orvell, M. (2003). Amercan Photography. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.