photosecession

Arts&

Crafts

William Morris

ArtNouvea

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Toulouse Lautrec

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was born on November 24, 1864, in southern France

Died on September 9, 1901, at the family chateau of Malrome.

PhotoSecessionStieglitz, Steichen, Kasebier,White

• The Photo Secession was organized by Alfred Stieglitz and operated by him between 1902 and 1917.  Composed of carefully selected pictorial photographers, the society often did the best and most original photography produced in the United States and abroad. Stieglitz himself an expert photographer, championed the goals of the Photo-Secession in his magazine Camera Work (1903-17) and at the little galleries of the Photo-Secession (1905-1917) at 291 Fifth Avenue.

• First devoted solely to photography, Stieglitz, in association with his colleague Edouard Steichen, soon opened the doors of his galleries (later called "291") to advanced painting and sculpture, European and American and also the pages of Camera Work to the same kind of art

Alfred Stieglitz

Self Portrait

FlatIron

Fountain, photograph of sculpture by Marcel Duchamp, 1917.

NY Central Yards, 1907, Georgia O'Keeffe 1918,

Georgia O'Keeffe 1918,

Alfred Stieglitz, "Hands," $1,472,000, a record for the artist at auction.

Alfred Stieglitz, "Nude," $1,360,000.Sotheby's Feb. 1906

Edouard Steichen

Edward Steichen (1879-1973) is one of the most important figures in the history of photography. During his active career, which lasted over half the life span of photography, he was renowned as an artist, fashion photographer, curator, writer, and technical innovator. He was also a passionate advocate for photography as an art form, and led, along with Alfred Stieglitz, an aesthetic revolution that enabled photography to be considered as a medium capable of interpretation and expression, and not as a mere documentary record of isual facts.  

•Steichen took up photography in 1895, at the age of sixteen, and was self-taught. During his early career, around the turn of the century, he was associated with a style of photography known as Pictorialism. The Pictorialists felt that the aesthetic promise of photography lay in an emulation of painting. Steichenís early work, then, adopted many Pictorialist techniques (a jiggled tripod, a lens bathed in glycerin, or various darkroom tricks) designed to produce ìpainterlyî soft-focus effects. During this period, Steichen was also a painter, until he burned all his canvases in 1922.  

•In 1905, with Stieglitz, he founded the famous Little Galleries of the Photo Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue in New York (later the 291 Gallery) to promote photography as an art form in particular, and European Modernism in general. Steichen soon came under the spell of the new art movements with their abstract geometries, and he gradually abandoned his Pictorialism in favor of straight photography with a strong sense of design and clean, uncluttered images and compositions Steichen

Edouard Steichen

In Memoriam1904

Brooklyn Bridge1903

Rodin—The Eve, 1907

Steichen visited Rodin for the first time in 1900. He brought a portfolio of his photographs with him and, after looking through the portfolio, Rodin allowed the American to photograph him in his studio.

The results have been justly termed "among the best ever made." In this exquisite autochrome, an early type of color transparency, signed and dated 1907,

Steichen recorded the aging sculptor clothed in timeless drapery and sitting at the feet of the plaster model of his Eve, a soft-focus image that appears almost as the sculptor's dream.

Edward Steichen: Alfred Stieglitz at "291". 1915.

The Spiral ShellFrance, vers 1921

Gloria Swanson, New York 1924

White1935

Fred Astaire Film Top HatNew York, 1927

Paul Robeson as "The Emperor Jones 1933

Gertrude KasebierAs Kasebier’s portraiture came more into the light of the art world, she soon sought a friendship with Alfred Stieglitz. Near the turn of century,

Kasebier contacted Stieglitz: to further he success by mingling with the art photographers, to further her knowledge and to give herself news directions in her life. The two befriended quickly. They agreed that photography was a

form of artistic expression and worked with similar processes in order to achieve an artistic photographic print. Within a short period of time, Stieglitz was promoting Kasebier’s work through his publication, Camera Notes, and

organizing solo exhibitions of her work, one of which was the Camera Club of New York, which Kasebier soon became a member.

•The most important and now historic exhibit of this period was the first Philadelphia Photographic Salon of 1898. Of the 1200 entries, only 259 were

selected. Ten of Kasebier’s images were chosen to exhibit; this extremely high honor placed her in the ranks of Stieglitz and other contemporaries.

•The judges of the exhibit, such as William Merritt Chase stated that Kasebier’s work was as fine as anything that VanDyck has ever done. Charles H.

Caffin was taken by Kasebier’s individuality…the force and distinctiveness of her style. The following year, Kasebier was a judge on the Philadelphia Photographic Salon. About that same time, her print The Manger sold for $100, which was the

most paid for a photograph at that time. Kasebier began to socialize with F. Holland Day, Clarence White and became one of photography’s most

influential photographers due to her unique style and consistently good work.

Gertrude Kasebier

Clarence WhiteClarence White became a book-keeper for a Newark, Ohio grocery

firm in 1890. In 1893 he got married and took up photography, helping to start the Newark Camera Club in 1898. Alfred Stieglitz exhibited some of his pictures at the New York Camera Club the

following year, and he was elected to the London (UK) based 'Linked Ring' in 1900.

White was one of the photographers promoted by Stieglitz as the 'Photo-Secession', exhibiting his work in their exhibitions and

publishing it in Camera Work - including a whole issue in 1908. His pictures are characterised by his use of light, often creating a virtual

glow from the highlights. He experimented widely with printing processes, including platinum and gum bichromate

Clarence White

FrankLlyod

Wright

FrankLlyod

Wright

FrankLlyod

Wright