Alfred Stieglitz was a 20th century German-American Photographer, central to the pictorialist movement that popularized the notion that beautiful compositions could be captured in print. His photographs depicted buildings, working-class people, nature, and urban life. Through his work, he elevated photography as an acceptable form of art on par with other media.
Stieglitz experimented with platinum printing and wrote multiple articles sharing sensitizing recipes and his findings on the effects of chemical manipulation on the colors of printed images. He worked as an editor of both Camera Notes and Camera Work, publications that discussed the aesthetics and techniques of photography.
He founded the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, a exhibition space for fine art of all media.
Many people in Stieglitz’s time argued that photography could not be considered a fine art because photographs were made with machines. Stieglitz dedicated a large portion of his life to proving them wrong. His compositions were influenced by the appearance of paintings and drawings and showcased the connection between photography and handmade art. The Terminal (1893) is one of many photographs in which he used natural elements (in this case, steam) to capture a composition that resembled that of a painting. Later in his career, he transitioned into more straightforward photography. He spent almost a decade taking hundreds of photographs of different parts of his wife, Georgia O’Keefe’s nude body hoping to showcase the idea that the true essence of a person could not be encapsulated in one photo. During his final years, he created a series of cloud photographs titled Equivalents with the intention of capturing photos that were equivalent to the emotion he was feeling at the moment he took the picture.
Alfred Stieglitz’s work as a photographer, editor, and gallerist forever changed the trajectory of future photographers and firmly established photography as a medium.
Alfred Stieglitz biographical summary
Born: January 1, 1864, Hoboken, New Jersey
Died: July 13, 1946, New York, New York
Periods: Social realism, American modernism, Modern art
Spouse: Georgia O’Keeffe (1924–1946)