PHOTOGRAPHS
Steichen, Edward J.
Luxembourg / U.S. (1879 - 1973)
Portrait of Clarence H. White
1905
Photogravure
8 7/16 x 6 7/16 in. (21.4 x 16.3 cm) image size; 11 7/8 x 8 7/16 in. (30.2 x 21.4 cm) sheet size
Monsen Study Collection of Photography, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen
FA 84.21

Launched by Alfred Stieglitz in 1902 Camera Work was a quarterly publication covering the evolution of the pictorial movement in photography. Only 50 issues were published between 1903 and 1917. Each issue contained carefully reproduced photographs, often photogravures on thin Japanese paper which gave the images a feeling of delicacy and depth. Steichen, a prominent and influential photographer and member of the Photo-Secession, worked with Stieglitz on the publicty and cover design of Camera Work. The Pictorialist photographers, who included Clarence H. White, looked to the artistic themes produced by such painters as William Merritt Chase and James Abbot McNeil Whistler in order to heighten the status of photography to a medium capable of artistic expression.

A prominent and influential Pictorialist photographer and member of the Photo-Secession, Eduard Steichen worked closely with Alfred Stieglitz on the creation and publicity of Camera Work and the gallery 291 in New York City. This portrait of fellow photographer Clarence H. White, which was published in Camera Work, is characteristic of the Pictorialist style in its shallow movement into space as well as the subtlety and richness of tones, achieved through the photogravure process. The Pictorialists sought to heighten the status of photography to a medium capable of artistic expression. White, Steichen, and Stieglitz, among others, looked to the artistic themes produced by such painters as William Merritt Chase and James Abbot McNeill Whistler in order to elevate public opinion of the artist capabilities of photography. Steichen went on to experiment with other trends in photography, including commercial photography and modernism, finishing his long and influential career as the Director of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His most important exhibit, indeed perhaps the most important exhibit in the history of photography, was his Family of Man exhibit at MoMA in 1955. -- Label copy n.d.

Both a painter and photographer, Steichen was one of the first in the early 20th century to apply an artistic flair to photography. This photograph of Clarence White, a noted Chicago photographer, marks Steichen’s entrance into the art world. Steichen along with Steiglitz confounded the Photo-Secession a group whose purpose was the elevation of photography to a fine art. They were dedicated to advancing photography as an independent pictorial expression without relying painterly approaches like hand manipulation.

Edward Steichen went on to photograph some of the art and literary world’s most eminent denizens. He arranged many European and American premiere art exhibitions at Stieglitz’s Gallery 291. These introduced the work of such artists as Matisse, Cézanne, Rodin, and Brancusi alongside American painters such as Maurer, Marin, and Carles. Steichen explored the merging of photography and painting, and developed abstraction in photographic concepts. In 1947 Steichen was named director of the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, where he brought the work of such artists as Frederick Sommer, Harry Callahan, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Edward Weston to the public eye. -- Label copy for 150 Works of Art, October 1, 2005 to February 26, 2006.