Book Description

Few individuals have exerted as profound an influence on 20th-century American art and culture as Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946). This luxurious two-volume boxed set is the definitive catalogue of the Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the most complete Stieglitz holding in existence, donated to the gallery by his widow, artist Georgia O'Keeffe.

Numbering 1,642 photographs, the collection represents the full range of the master photographer's work-from early studies made in Europe, to views of the majestic New York skyline, to incomparable intimate portraits of O'Keeffe. Coinciding with a major traveling exhibition and providing complete scholarly apparatus and a chronology, this sumptuous volume demonstrates how Stieglitz absorbed the most advanced artistic concepts of his time into photography and transformed the medium forever. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A beautiful book
The photography and the text of this book has been described in other reviews, but I want to add that this is now one of the most beautiful books that I own. The typesetting is flawless, the paper is of a much higher weight than I have seen in other monographs, and, of course, the reproductions are class. These points are magnified by the sheer size of the book-- check the dimensions given in the details above. The book is a work of art.

"The Meaning of the Idea Photography" -- Alfred Stieglitz
This book clearly deserves many more than five stars. It is one of the most remarkable expressions about and by an artist in any genre that I have ever seen.

Before going further, let me caution those who are offended by all forms of nudity that this book contains many female nudes. These are all tastefully done, and will not offend those who look with a desire to see the essence of beauty.

Alfred Stieglitz was a seminal figure in 20th century art. One of the foremost photographers in the century, he also helped other photographers define what the aesthetic means in photography. He also was a champion for many of the best known photographers, and seriously boosted their careers. In painting, he was an early advocate of important 20th century artists like Arthur Dove and Georgia O'Keeffe. In addition, he published two influential journals about photography, and exhibited art in his famous gallery in New York. Clearly, though, photography was his first love. "I have all but killed myself for Photography."

This book focuses on his central vision of photography ("search for objective truth and pure form") which increasingly was about "antiphotographs" or images that move beyond simple representation. This concept is examined both in 73 of his best images and through numerous excerpts from his voluminous writings on the subject (over 200 essays).

This book is based on the famous 1983 show of Stieglitz's work, and has been reproduced with amazing care and quality. The images are produced in tritone to give more texture and detail. The paper is of archival quality. Most people's diplomas are not on paper this good or this thick. There is a luxurious feeling to just hold the pages.

The 73 images were selected by Ms. O'Keeffe, Juan Hamilton (her friend and assistant), and curator Sarah Grenough from approximately 1600 images in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. Ms. Grenough selected the writings to be used, and wrote the wonderful introduction.

From looking at these remarkable images, I came away with the impression that Stieglitz was at his best (for my taste) when he was doing portraits, abstractions, and cityscapes. Those subjects seemed to allow him to strip away the unessential better than the others he used. My favorite images in the book are:

Sun Rays -- Paula, Berlin, 1889

From the Back-Window -- 291, 1915 Self-Portrait, 1907

Marie Rapp, 1916

Arthur G. Dove, 1911-1912

Charles Demuth, 1915

Hodge Kirnon, 1917

Marcel Duchamp, 1923

Georgia O'Keeffe, 1918 (3)

Margaret Treadwell, 1921

Waldo Frank, 1920

Dancing Trees, 1922

Music -- A Sequence of Ten Cloud Photographs, VIII, 1922

Equivalent, 1931

His writings are as rewarding as his photographs. I was particularly interested in his ideas about how humans make progress. "Progress has been accomplished only by reason of the fanatical enthusiasm of the revolutionist . . . ." "Experts . . . are the result of hard work."

After you have finished enjoying this astonishingly revealing volume, I suggest that you think about how you like to express truth and beauty in your life. How can you be more direct and simple in this expression?

Be sure to live a life of "constant experimenting" like Stieglitz did!

Wonderful collection of his writing and photographs
This is far more than a picture book; it contains 73 high-quality plates and its real treasures can be found is the twenty page introduction and the fifty pages of selections from his writings about his work and views on photography. As a full time artist, I found this book to be both rich and inspiring. If you have lost sight of why you shoot pictures, try this as a reminder of clearer moments. ... Read more

Book Description

Alfred Stieglitz was one of the most important cultural forces in twentieth-century America. He described himself in 1921 as "an American. Photography is my passion. The search for truth my obsession." As a photographer, editor, and gallery director, Stieglitz was a powerful--often domineering--influence on photography and art. As founder of the PhotoSecession movement and editor of the influential Camera Work, he eschewed the prevailing "artiness" of pictorialist photography, preferring a clarity of vision, a "crystallized awareness." In galleries such as "291" and An American Place which he directed, he introduced modern artists from this country and Europe.His own work was a seminal force, inspiring clut-like devotion; the noted curator and scholar Ananda Coomoraswamy said of Stieglitz, "His art is absolute the way Bach's music is absolute." He is best known for his winter scenes in New York and Paris, his luminous landscapes at Lake George, his portraits of Georgia O'Keeffe and Dorothy Norman, and his elusive Equivalents. His study of the expressiveness of forms and the subtleties of light won him great acclaim.Alfred Stieglitz presents forty-one of the artist's most significant photographs, spanning his career. Photographer Dorothy Norman, Stieglitz's close associate and working partner, has written an intimate and comprehensive text. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz really had an eye for the art of photgraphy. he new what was needed in order to dreate good pictures, this book really captures the essence of that eye. ... Read more

Book Description

This latest volume in the acclaimed In Focus series examines the life and work of Alfred Stieglitz, concentrating on the Getty Museum's considerable holdings of the work of this American master.In his studies of his wife, Georgia O'Keefe, in his portraits of the urban scene, and in his pictures of natural form, Stieglitz defined the modern movement on photography. In his periodical Camera Work he championed photography as an art form;in his famous gallery "An American Place," he promoted the work of other American modernists.Fifty reproductions with commentaries by Weston Naef, the Getty's curator of photographs, represent both the range of the Getty's collection and the importance of Stieglitz's contribution. The book also includes an edited colloquium on Stieglitz's life and work.Participants included Emmit Gowin, photographer, Sarah Greenough, curator of photographs at the National Gallery, Charles Hagen, critic for the New York Times, John Szarkowski, former curator of photographs at the Museum of Modern Art, and Weston Naef. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

One of the original greats of photography.
Steiglitz is one of the great masters of the art of photography. Married to producing quality material, his work will never be "out of style." In addition, today's media obsessed population can find excitement in the stories of his personal life with Georgia O'Keefe. So it seems as though there's something for all. ... Read more

Book Description

For more than a decade before World War I, Alfred Stieglitz lent much of his formidable energy to his public career as an editor, publisher, proselytizer, and art dealer. In the 1920s and 30s, he turned again to his own photography, exploring his personal world at Lake George, in the Adirondack mountains of New York, where he spent summers at a family farmhouse. He photographed the things around him--the landscape, the clouds overhead, the intimate life he led with family and friends, including Georgia O'Keefe, Waldo Frank, and Paul Rosenfeld. This body of work, radical and private, is the essential aspect of Stieglitz's achievement as a photographer, and has nowhere else been published as a coherent whole.

Essay by John Szarkowski. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The Private Stieglitz
The name Stieglitz conjures up many images that helped define modern photography. With his publications of Camera Notes and Camera Work, numerous awards, and a tenacious drive to promote photography as a serious art, Alfred Stieglitz shaped our awareness of photography like no other. Although earlier photographs such as The Steerage, The Hand of Man, Spring Showers, The Terminal and others are indelibly linked to Stieglitz, it is his later work that is just as important to this oeuvre. With the publication of "Stieglitz at Lake George" we see a man content with his craft, to the point where some of the images have a snapshot quality, like vacation pictures taken by a master seer. The images show Stieglitz relaxed yet still in control, as he records the surroundings at Lake George. Both formal and informal, the portraits taken of O'Keeffe are some of Stieglitz's strongest depictions of the artist. Ellen Koeniger and Rebecca Strand elicit both playful and erotic poses for the camera, while others are photographed chatting, playing, or simply wandering around the grounds of Lake George. Many will see the photographs in direct contrast to Stieglitz's urban images. Although this is apparent in most of the photographs, the images of poplar trees stand out like the skyscrapers Stieglitz photographed later in his career. Even the elegant automobile found on the last page is clearly an urban image - a reminder that eventually one must leave Lake George and its quiet calm, for the city further down the road. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Alfred Stieglitz had a double impact on the evolution of modern art in America. As an audacious and dedicated photographer, he fought for photography's acceptance as an art form. As a gallery owner, he introduced the American public to the greatest artists of the period: Rodin, Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso, Brancusi, Braque, and Duchamp owed their first exhibitions in America to Stieglitz's vision and energy. The large and elegant Modern Art and America, organized by Sarah Greenough, curator of photography at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, presents 360 works by artists associated with Stieglitz's galleries, including the photographer himself. The first half of the book describes the years 1905 to 1917, when Stieglitz used his Gallery 291 as an intellectual forum and a place to exhibit the work of mostly European artists. The second covers 1921 to 1946, when he focused on promoting American artists such as John Marin, Arthur Dove, Paul Strand, and Stieglitz's partner, Georgia O'Keeffe. In an imaginative re-creation of history, the editors have gone to great lengths to locate and illustrate the actual paintings, photos, and sculptures that Stieglitz exhibited. Essays by curators at the National Gallery and others describe his relationships with individual artists, successfully conveying the intellectual ferment that he inspired. Modern Art and America, printed in Italy to the highest quality standards, is an exemplary combination of scholarship and art book, a pleasure both to look at and to read. --John Stevenson ... Read more

Book Description

Focusing on the early years of Stieglitz’s life and career, this stunning book sheds new light on his contributions to photography

This beautifully written book weaves together biographical, historical, and artistic strands to present a colorful tapestry of the photographer Alfred Stieglitz’s (1864–1946) early life and work. Generously illustrated, the volume includes photographs Stieglitz took in Europe (some rarely seen), his first works in the United States, and Katherine Hoffman’s new photographs of important sites in young Stieglitz’s life. The book is the first to look closely at the photographer’s formative years and photographic works before 1917.

Although Stieglitz was born in New Jersey, his ancestry lay in Germany, where he spent some of his high school and university years. Stieglitz: A Beginning Light traces the lasting influences of European culture on his work, as well as the impact of American democratic traditions. The book also recounts his tireless and often lonely efforts as a young photographer, editor, writer, and gallery director to gain recognition for the Modernist cause and for photography as a fine art.

Katherine Hoffman is chairperson and professor, Fine Arts Department, St. Anselm College. She is the author of five previous books, including two on Georgia O’Keeffe.

... Read more

Book Description

A collection of previously unpublished correspondence between American artist Marsden Hartley and avant-garde impresario and photographer Alfred Stieglitz, My Dear Stieglitz chronicles a painter's three-year-plus European pilgrimage before--and during the inception of--World War I. Beginning with Hartley's 1912 arrival in Paris, his letters to Stieglitz from this pioneering capital of modern art and world culture provide sweeping accounts of Gertrude Stein's salons, gossip of Montparnasse cafés filled with poets, writers, artists, and composers, and commentary on paintings by Picasso, Cézanne, and Matisse. Searching for social acceptance as well as artistic growth and inspiration, Hartley reports to Stieglitz on leading galleries such as Ambroise Vollard, Bernheim-Jeune, and Paul Durand-Ruel, while finding solace in art at the Musée du Louvre.

From Germany in early 1913, Hartley writes vibrant letters about the Expressionist artists in Munich, Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, and their group Der Blaue Reiter. Hartley's missives quickly become up-to-the-minute exposés on avant-garde trends in Germany with childlike lamentations over the bustling, modern city of Berlin. His glory in Germany turns solemn with the onset of World War I and the death of his close friend, a German officer named Karl von Freyburg--a loss vividly depicted in Hartley’s renowned war motif paintings from this period. Steiglitz's correspondence from New York gives an American point of view of a war in Europe and chronicles exhibitions at "291," his own gallery for modern art. Although Stieglitz's letters are less personal than Hartley's, he shows subtle signs of resentment toward the famous 1913 Armory Show, which usurped his reign over modernism in America.

Closing in late 1915 with Hartley's return to an America filled with anti-German sentiment and a New York seasoned by the influx of modern art, My Dear Stieglitz provides an intimate perspective on modern art and the human condition during the tempestuous years of the early twentieth century. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

An informative and intrinsically interesting collection
Compiled and edited by art historian and expert James Timothy Voorhies, My Dear Stieglitz: Letters Of Marsden Hartley And Alfred Stieglitz 1912-1915 is an informative and intrinsically interesting collection of previously unpublished correspondence between America artist Marsden Hartley and avant-garde impresario, editor, and photographer Alfred Stieglitz chronicling Hartley's three year European sojourn before and just at the inception of World War I. The letters begin with Hartley's 1912 arrival in Paris and provides invaluable commentary on Gertrude Stein's salons, the paintings of Picasso, Cezanne, and Matisse, and his encounters with many of the leading lights of the European world of artists, art dealers, and gallery owners. Hartley continues in 1913 to write an informative correspondence about the Expressionist artists and art trends that he encountered in Germany. This amazing body of correspondence concludes with Hartley's late 1915 return to an America seasoned by the influx of pre-war modern art. My Dear Stieglitz is a welcome and invaluable contribution to 20th Century Art History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

Super collection of letters!
I loved this collection of letters because the correspondence is so succint, complete, and filled with emotion and drama. The letters really gave me a sense of what the artist was going through at this time in his life.

Also, the editor did a great job with the appendices and the footnotes - they are as entertaining and informative as the letters themselves. ... Read more

Book Description

In An American Lens, Jay Bochner looks at a series of milestones in the development of the American avant-garde that capture a pivotal period in artistic consciousness. He focuses on the multiple roles of Alfred Stieglitz -- as influential gallery owner, photographer, and impresario of the emerging art scene -- at a series of significant moments in his career. These close-ups offer a more intense and expanded understanding of the subject than the more familiar long view.

Bochner uses these scenes to recreate for today's readers the birth of modernism in America: what it was like to be an audience for the art of the early avant-garde. Moving from frame to frame, he shows us, for example, a single photograph by Stieglitz of a snowy night in 1893 and a short description by Stephen Crane of the same snowfall; the preparation, the reception, and the aftermath of the famous Armory Show of modern art in 1913; Gertrude Stein's portraits in prose; New York at the dawn of Dada, with Paul Strand, Francis Picabia, and others; and the intersecting paths of Mina Loy, William Carlos Williams, and Marcel Duchamp in 1917. Bochner also examines Stieglitz's three great photographic series: his photographs of Georgia O'Keeffe, of clouds, and of skyscrapers. These sections of the book include many Stieglitz photos, including some rarely seen portraits of O'Keeffe.

Stieglitz as impresario and artist achieved an almost mythical status, which some recent critics have worked to deflate -- casting him, for example, as Svengali to Georgia O'Keeffe's spellbound Trilby. Engaging in neither idolatry nor demolition, Bochner looks instead for the truth about the man and the myth. The scenes from American art in An American Lens create a new version of Stieglitz's biography, allowing us to reread his life and the life of his times by focusing intently on what is visible and not so visible in the art he left behind. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An Important Historical Reference for Photography
Camera Work was the most important publication in the early development of modern photography. Camera Work was the first primarily pictoral periodical.

Edited by the indefatigable Alfred Steiglitz, the publication was the voice of the important Photo-Secession, but operated independently of it. Through Camera Work, early aficionados of great photography were able to discover the works of the first geniuses in this field. Later the publication also introduced Americans to the works of Marin, Matisse, Picasso, and Cezanne.

Please realize that I am rating this book for its value as a historical reference. This is not a coffee table book, and many of the images will not attract the casual observer. If you are looking for a book of beautiful and wonderfully reproduced photographs, this is not your book.

Before going further, please also realize that this book contains many tasteful nudes and would be "R" rated as a motion picture.

The book's strength is that it contains all of the illustrations (and even some of the advertisements) from the entire 50 issues of Camera Work. For most people, this book is the only way you can observe that work. Although many people have heard about Stieglitz's work in advocating photography, few have seen what an issue of Camera Work looked like. You will also benefit from seeing the essays that Stieglitz wrote about the photographers. These were done in New Yorker style and are very accessible variations on the essays often found in catalogues for exhibitions. In fact, Camera Work increasingly doubled as a summary of exhibitions at 291, Stieglitz's gallery.

The book comes with a fine essay (in English, German, and French) that explains many valuable details about Camera Work.

Stieglitz was very dedicated to quality and sought out the best reproduction processes for the images involved. Unfortunately, these reproductions as done for this volume will fall short of the expectations of most viewers. The pages are quite small, making many images appear differently than they were probably intended.

Stieglitz liked photography that included a soft focus or the diffusion of light that fog and rain can provide. In many cases, these effects are enhanced by other techniques to make the resulting images more abstract. In this book's format, these images often don't look their best. In particular, it seemed to me that many of the images were overinked in this printing, which would create more obscurity than was intended by the artist.

Here are my favorite photographic images from the book:

Bartholome, 1903, Edward Steichen

Letitia Felix, 1903, Clarence White

Ely Cathedral, 1903, Frederick Evans

Storm Light, 1904, Will Cadby

Illustration to "Eben Holden," 1905, Clarence White

Katherine, 1905, Alfred Stieglitz

Experiment in Three-color Photography, 1906, Edward Steichen

Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, 1907, Sarah Sears

The Rudder, 1908, Alvin Coburn

Spider-webs, 1908, Alvin Coburn

Still Life [glass bowl with floating flowers], 1908, Baron A. de Meyer

Portrait Group, 1912, H. Mortimer Lamb

The Balloon Man, 1912, Baron A. de Meyer

Ellen Terry, 1913, Julia Margaret Cameron

Dryads, 1913, Annie Brigman

New York, 1916, Paul Strand

Photograph [shadows on geometric objects], 1917, Paul Strand

After you finish enjoying this remarkable collection, I suggest that you think about how the styles represented here have affected modern photographic methods and our concepts of photography. In a sense, these images are the dinosaur bones of modern photography.

See the truth, the beauty, and the pain! ... Read more

Book Description

Stieglitz's most significant essays published together for the first time in a single volume.

Over the years, Alfred Stieglitz wrote extensively and authoritatively about many aspects of photography. In Stieglitz on Photography renowned Stieglitz expert Sarah Greenough and art historian Richard Whelan gather more than fifty of this master photographer's astute writings about the medium, along with their insightful and anecdotal commentary on each article.

Throughout his six-decade career, Stieglitz devoted himself almost entirely to the investigation of truth and integrity in artistic expression. With the pioneering exhibitions he mounted at Gallery 291, the pages of Camera Work he edited and produced, and his extensive writings on photography, Stieglitz tirelessly championed photography as a fine art-a legacy that continues to influence thinking on photography today.

Illustrated with reproductions of photographs by Stieglitz and his contemporaries, as well as with selections of his articles in their original layouts, this volume contains reproductions of many of Stieglitz's photographs that are otherwise unknown today.
... Read more

Reviews (1)

"Must" reading for all serious students of photography.
Alfred Stieglitz is legendary in the annals of American photography. In Stieglitz On Photography: His Selected Essays And Notes, Richard Whelan has compiled and annotated the best of Stieglitz's commentaries regarding the power and beauty of the photograph as an artistic and interpretative medium. Drawing from Stieglitz's exhibition reviews, travel pieces, technical articles, and various diatribes on Pictorialism and the founding of the Photo-Secession, Stieglitz On Photography is "must" reading for all serious students of the developmental history and cultural relevance of American photography. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Alfred Stieglitz An American Seer
If you're looking for a book about the life of Alfred Stieglitz and his photography, this isn't the book you want. In my opinion this book is poorly structured and very poorly written. It delves more into the lives of the artists (primarily European painters)whose works Stieglitz exhibited. Stieglitz's impact on photography and the lives of the photographers he befriended is barely mentioned. You can actually learn more about Alfred Stieglitz by reading a biography of Ansel Adams! Fortunately, I purchased this book from a half-price book store - now I know why it was there. ... Read more

Book Description

Nancy Newhall wrote some of the most incisive work ever published on the inner lives of the photographers who shaped the medium. Her friendship with photographers such as Paul Strand, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and Helen Levitt, to name a few, lends her writing a vibrancy rarely found in essays on photography.

Newhall was one of the few people to gain access to the inner circle--and thoughts--of the imposing Alfred Stieglitz, and her intimate portrait of him, previously unpublished, reveals a man of genius, humor, and kindness.
... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great collection of Mid 20th Century Photography Writing
Nancy Newhall was (and continues to be some 29 years after her accidental death) one of the best writers on photography I have read. She was a confidant of such luminaries as Alfred Stieglitz and Ansel Adams (she was his first biographer), the acting curator of the Department of Photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art in the 1940's, a driving force in the influential magazine and publishing concern Aperture, and an avid writer of photography books.

The writings collected in "From Adams to Stieglitz: Pioneers of Modern Photography" represent a wonderful cross-section of her work. Her knowledge of the history of photography is amazing as she writes about the motivation driving the development of the medium. Two of the pieces are remarkable:

"Controversy and the Creative Concepts," written in 1953, compares and contrasts the photographic style of the "Parisian School" as represented by Cartier-Bresson and the "Western School" represented by Group f/64, Alfred Eisenstaedt, and Helen Bourke-White. Worlds diametrically opposed, each equally valid. The article presents an important overview of 20th century photography.

"The Caption: The Mutual Relation of Words/Photographs," written in 1952 for the first issue of Aperture, looks at the different types of captions that can be attached to a photograph (if any: Stieglitz refused to put caption on his work) and how one should write them. This essay provides nice insight into the practice of photographic writing.

Anyone with an interest in 20th century photography will find this book an essential part of their library. Her writing style is unique and wonderful, an absolute joy to read. ... Read more

Book Description

Soon after George Eastman House opened, curator Beaumont Newhall sought to acquire the work of Alfred Stieglitz, arguably the most important photographer of the twentieth century. He worked closely with Georgia O’Keeffe and gathered a group of 152 photographs that represent the full range of Stieglitz’s ideology and career. He also collected objects largely unique to the Eastman House, including lantern slides, autochromes, and cameras. The publication of this book coincides with a traveling exhibition that opened in the summer of 2000 not only to document the Stieglitz collection at George Eastman House but also to explore O’Keeffe’s role in the shaping and preservation of Stieglitz’s legacy.

The artistic collaboration between Stieglitz and O’Keeffe is well documented—she was the subject of many of his most important photographs. What is less well understood is their collaboration on the preservation of photography and their concern for the role of the institution in educating the public. This book presents Stieglitz’s work in a new light and offers a new analysis of one of the greatest partnerships in the history of art. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

What I got
I bought this book based on the previous customer's review. While I think it is an excellent book I want to correct what is, I feel, some incorrect information. The book does have over a hundered of Stieglitz's prints but most of them are thumbnails. There are only 42 full size photograghic plates in the books, not over a hundred.

The duotones and works are beautifully presented
This presentation of the works of a 20th century photographer who worked with Georgia O'Keeffe and others presents over a hundred photos from his career. While it accompanies a traveling exhibition, Photography of Alfred Stieglitz stands alone as a excellent compilation of photos and essays which probe Stieglitz's perspective. The duotones and works are beautifully presented, centered against a white backdrop of edges which work as a frame for the art. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

An Unvarnished, Unsympathetic, Portrait
I'm a realist when it comes to human beings, holding no illusions about how cruel we can be. But after reading this book I wish I had not read it. Either I buy into Eisler's portrait of O'Keefe and Stieglitz -- which consistently paints them as self-centered persons who nearly qualify as anti-social personalities -- or I assume that Eisler's presentation borders on slander. Most of the content of the book appears to be there to justify the author's "psychological" conclusions about their personalities. This leads me to question what is actually driving the presentation -- the sources or Eisler's harsh theory about their personalities. There were so few instances where you would find an instance where they were presented in a favorable light that it leaves me wondering, "Were they this unredeemable, or is this a simplistic reduction that has not sufficiently presented the complex nature of their personalities?" Since this is the only book I've read about them, I have nothing to compare it to. Eisler could be dead on and fair. Frankly, I hope not.

A fascinating study of two complex and gifted personalities
An amazing insight into the lives of two of America's great artists of this century. Thanks to the fine research of the author and the fact that so many important people in the lives of O'Keeffe and Stieglitz corresponded by letter and, more importantly, saved the letters, we are able to share many moments in their personal and professional lives in NYC, at Lake George and in New Mexico. Their psychological development over time and the effect of that on their work and their relationship is fairly mind boggling. One problem, the author never really explains what it is about Stieglitz that makes O'Keeffe love him and keeps her tied to him.

This book is astounding
I got this book as a gift. It is a little intimidating in size but is a fascinating look at the extraordinary flawed lives of these two individuals. It sounds cliche but it is very hard to put down. In part I think it has such an "inside" nature to it due to the prolific letter writers involved. Everyone wrote, and luckily seemed to save all their correspondence. The look at the New York Art world in the 1920's is such a bonus.

A great book! ... Read more

Book Description

At the turn of the last century, there was a sense of dissatisfaction within both the American and European photographic communities. In 1902, an avant-garde band of photographers, led by Alfred Stieglitz, began to champion their work as art, rather than as a mere form of documentation, in an exhibit at the National Arts Club in New York. They called themselves the Photo-Secession and are considered to be the best and most original photographers of their day. This group included luminaries such as Edward Steichen, F. Holland Day, Frank Eugene, Gertrude K&aumlsebier, Clarence H. White, and Stieglitz himself.

Stieglitz and the Photo-Secession, 1902 is the first book to re-create that monumental exhibit, with 100 color plates complemented by text from noted art scholar William Innes Homer. This beautiful book and remarkable tribute to Steiglitz and his contemporaries is a must for all lovers and students of photography.

Edited by Catherine Johnson. ... Read more

Book Description

A tireless exponent of the avant-garde and of photography as a fine art, as well as a consummate photographer in his own right, Alfred Stieglitz was both the embodiment of rebellious New York modernism and an oddly domestic man who retained a lifelong attachment to his family's country estate. In Stieglitz: A Memoir/Biography, author Sue Davidson Lowe, Stieglitz's grand-neice, presents the man in all of his complexity, tracing his background and revealing the interplay between his character and his multifaceted career. She offers new insight into Stieglitz's relationships with artists such as Marin, Hartley, Dove, Steichen, and O'Keefe; his pioneering promotion of Europe's most radical artists through the Photo-Secession group and the 291 gallery; and his creation of some of our century's most enduring photographic images. Gracefully weaving personal reminiscence and verifiable fact as she lucidly interweaves Stieglitz's career with his personal life, Lowe presents a uniquely compelling and intimate portrait of a hugely influential, hugely enigmatic American artist.

"As scholarly a production as anyone could wish, crammed with facts and trailing informative appendixes. It is also a loving and occasionally exasperated look at a contentious relative and the intimate circumstances that formed him." - Time ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Entirely worthwhile read.
This is an excellent biography. Written by Sue Davidson Lowe, Alfred Stieglitz's niece, "Stieglitz : A Memoir/Biography" is written objectively, yet with the knowingness and acceptance of a relative. This book presents a well-balanced picture of Stieglitz, his accomplishments (not only his own artistic endeavors, but his efforts to make photography an accepted art form), friends, family, and life. When I was done reading this biography, I felt that I had been presented with a coherent, entertaining, and candid portrayal of Stieglitz. I have read many biographies and autobiographies, of these, I have felt that about one-fourth are well-written and worth reading -- this Stieglitz biography is one of them. ... Read more