Stieglitz, Alfred (stēg`lĭts), 1864–1946, American photographer, editor, and art exhibitor, b. Hoboken, N.J. The first art photographer in the United States, Stieglitz more than any other American compelled the recognition of photography as a fine art. In 1881 he went to Berlin to study engineering but soon devoted himself to photography. In 1890 he returned to the United States and for three years helped to direct the Heliochrome Engraving Company. He then edited a series of photography magazines, the American Amateur Photographer (1892–96), Camera Notes (1897–1902), and Camera Work (1902–17), the organ of the photo-secessionists, a group he led that was dedicated to the promotion of photography as a legitimate art form.

In 1905 he established the famous gallery "291" at 291 Fifth Ave., New York City, for the exhibition of photography as a fine art. Soon the gallery broadened its scope to include the works of the modern French art movement and introduced to the United States the work of Cézanne Cézanne, Paul (pōl sāzän`), 1839–1906, French painter, b. Aix-en-Provence.
..... Click the link for more information. , Picasso Picasso, Pablo (Pablo Ruiz y Picasso) (pä`blō pēkä`sō; r
..... Click the link for more information. , Braque Braque, Georges (zhôrzh bräk), 1882–1963, French painter.
..... Click the link for more information. , Brancusi Brancusi, Constantin (bränky`zē, Rom.
..... Click the link for more information. , and many others. It also made known the work of such American artists as John Marin Marin, John (măr`ĭn), 1870–1953, American landscape painter, b. Rutherford, N.J.
..... Click the link for more information. , Charles Demuth Demuth, Charles (dā`mth), 1883–1935, American watercolor painter, b.
..... Click the link for more information. , Max Weber Weber, Max (mäks wĕb`ər), 1881–1961, American painter, b. Russia. At 10 he accompanied his family to Brooklyn, N.Y.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Georgia O'Keeffe O'Keeffe, Georgia (ōkēf`), 1887–1986, American painter, b. Sun Prairie, Wis.
..... Click the link for more information. whom Stieglitz married in 1924.

From 1917 to 1925 Stieglitz produced his major works: the extraordinary portraits of O'Keeffe, studies of New York, and the great cloud series through which he developed his concept of photographic "equivalents." This concept greatly influenced photographic aesthetics. He then opened the Intimate Gallery (1925–30) and An American Place (1930–46), which continued the work of "291." Through his own superb photographic work and his generous championship of others, he promoted the symbolic and spiritually significant in American art, as opposed to the merely technically proficient.

Bibliography

See America and Alfred Stieglitz (ed. by W. D. Frank et al., 1934); biographies by D. Bry (1965), D. Norman (1973), S. D. Lowe (1983), and R. Whelan (1995); W. I. Homer, Alfred Stieglitz and the Photo-Secession (1983); S. Greenough, Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set (2002).

Stieglitz, Alfred

Alfred Stieglitz at his gallery “291” in 1934; behind him is a painting by his wife, …

(credit: Imogen Cunningham)

(born Jan. 1, 1864, Hoboken, N.J., U.S.—died July 13, 1946, New York, N.Y.) U.S. photographer and exhibitor of modern art. He was taken to Europe by his wealthy family to further his education in 1881. In 1883 he abandoned engineering studies in Berlin for a photographic career. Returning to the U.S. in 1890, he made the first successful photographs in snow, in rain, and at night. In 1902 he founded the Photo-Secession group to establish photography as an art. His own best photographs are perhaps two series (1917–27), one of portraits of his wife, Georgia O'Keeffe, and the other of cloud shapes corresponding to emotional experiences. His photographs were the first to be exhibited in major U.S. museums. He also was the first to exhibit, at his “291” gallery in New York City, works of modern European and U.S. painters, five years before the Armory Show.

Stieglitz, Alfred (1864–1946) photographer, curator; born in Hoboken, New Jersey. He traveled to Berlin, Germany, in 1881 to study mechanical engineering and came back to New York in 1890 a photographer and admirer of avant-garde art. Partner in a photogravure business (1890–95), he continued taking photographs and edited Camera Notes for the Camera Club (1897–1902). He resigned in 1902, founding the photo-secession movement to express his belief that photography was an art form, equal to painting. Editor of Camera Work, he opened the "291" gallery (its name merely the address on 5th Avenue) to exhibit art from Europe (1905–17). In 1917 he met and began photographing the artist Georgia O'Keeffe, whom he married in 1924. A leader of the "pictorialist" approach to photography, he achieved his painterly effects by filming at night, in the snow and rain, instead of retouching in the lab. Winner of 150 awards for his own photography, he championed the careers of artists and photographers at the American Place Gallery (1929–46).