Alfred Stieglitz
In times when photography was still considered a scientific method, Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) advocated for the artistic merits of the person behind the camera by creating the 20th century movement Photo-Secession, making him an instrumental figure in promoting photography as a fine art and carving out the path for modern photographers of the time to create pictures that evoked creative meaning.
His magazine Camera Work was the result of the frustrations that came from fighting an older generation that refused to accept photography as a new form of expression.
While his young apprentice Edward Steichen went on to revolutionize portrait and fashion photography, Stieglitz evolved into a more “straight” photography that reflected the reality in front of the lens rather than attempt to form a scene and manipulate the photo, once more expanding the direction of the art form.
It wasn’t until his death at age 82 that his wife, artist Georgia O'Keeffe, an acclaimed modernist painter in her own right, collected and published most of his life’s work, including at least 331 photos of her face, hands, torso and feet, details which he believed revealed her uniqueness and individual character.
"I do it solely to satisfy something in me."
– Alfred Stieglitz, 1927