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Title: Meet Edward Steichen
Category: Person
Who: Glinn

Date: 2005-12-25 22:17

The main article is from "20TH CENTURY PHOTOGRAPHY"

Edward Steichen
1879 Luxembourg
1973 West Redding, Connecticut

Edward Steichen, who was born in Luxembourg, grew up in the USA after his family emigrated in 1881. Between 1894 and 1898 he studied under Richard Lorenz and Robert Schade ant the Milwaukee Art Students’ League and was an apprentice in a lithographic business in Milwaukee. Steichen painted, was interested in photography and, in 1895 began working in the style of artistic photography. During subsequent years he successfully participated in photographic exhibitions in America and in Europe. Despite his early commitment to photography, Seichen continued to pursue his career as a painter.
In an early self-portrait taken in 1901, Steichen drew attention to his double role. Although acting as a photographer, he deliberately took the pose of a painter. In his eyes, apparently the rich tradition of the medium of painting was a more suitable medium for depicting artistic genius than was the medium of photography. Nevertheless, he ultimately decided in favor of photography. In 1923 he broke entirely with his vocation as a painter by single-handedly burning those of his paintings that were in his possession.

In 1902 Steichen became on of the founding members of “Photo Secession”, which was intiated by Alfred Stieglitz in New York. By spending several years in Paris and by taking extended trips throughout Europe, Steichen became familiar with local avant-garde art and arranged exhibitions for artists in the USA, particularly in Stieglitz’ famous Gallery 291 in New York. During World War I, Stiechen served as a photographer in the Air Force and in the Marines, an assignment that was to change his photographic style fundamentally. The precision required by aerial photographs honed his eye and taught him to appreciate the beauty of nonmanipulated photography.

In 1923, Steichen became the chiedf photographer at Conde-Nast, where he was responsible especially for the fashion magazines Vanity Fair and Vogue until 1938. During these years he advanced to become one of the best-paid fasion and portrait photographers of his time.
After World War II, the now 67-year-old photographer embarked on a second career. He became director of the photographic department of the museum of Modern Art in New York, organizing numerous exhibitions. His “Family of Man”, representing not only a photographic concept but also a moral ideal, became world famous. This exhibition was meant to be a “mirror of the essential unity of man worldwide”.

Rodin, 1902

Landscape with Avenue of Trees, 1902

Across the Salt Marshes, Huntingon, circa, 1903

The Pond - Moonlight, 1904

The Flatiron, 1905

In Exaltation of Flowers, Petunia, Caladium, Budleya, 1910-13

Agnes Ernst Meyer, the Girl from The Sun, 1910

Isadora Duncan, 1913

Portrait of Miss Sawyer, 1914

Mary Steichen, 1917

Le Tournesol (The Sunflower), 1920

Isadora Duncan at the Portal of the Parthenon, Athens, 1921

Wind and Fire,1921

Dana, 1923

Sunburn, 1924

The Cat, 1925

Matches and Match Boxes, fabric design for Stehli Silks, 1926

Douglass Lighters, 1928

Greta Garbo, 1928

Marion Morehouse modeling white fur-trimmed wrap, 1929

Breadline on Sixth Avenue, New York, circa, 1930

THELEN MENKEN IN PROFILE WITH WHITE DRESS, 1930

George Washington Bridge, 1931

Jean Barry reclining on chaise, 1931

Empire State, 1932

Noel Coward, 1932

Alexander Woollcott, New York, 1933

Nude Torso, 1934

Japanese planes heading for Tarawa, 1943