Rene lead the discussion today on Alfred Stieglitz, a seminal character in the rise of photography as an art form focusing on some specific photographic aspects of his life and career. First he recounted Stieglitz's early life and career...the specific information can be found on the Stieglitz Wikipedia pages and will not be recounted on this blog post. Rene then brought to the table a two volume compilation of the entirety of his work that his wife, Georgia O'Keeffe put together after his death...all 25 lbs of book and images....a publication tour de force. Of course, what we looked at today was a reprinted version let to Rene by Book Alley. The larger part of his presentation centered around on of Stieglitz's publications ..."Camera Work" Below is a discussion copied from the Stieglitz Collection website about this publication. Camera Work Published 1903–1917 information below from the Stieglitz Collection website...link below Camera Work "Stieglitz had edited two previous publications—The American Amateur Photographer and Camera Notes—before deciding in 1902 that he wanted to put his energies toward an autonomous, high-quality magazine intended to elevate and promote the art of photography. In the prospectus for Camera Work, he argued that the journal would be independent, “owing allegiance only to the interests of photography.”[1] The first issue was published in January 1903, and Stieglitz declared therein his standards of inclusion: “Only examples of such work as gives evidence of individuality and artistic worth, regardless of school, or contains some exceptional feature of technical merit, will find recognition in these pages.”[2] Camera Work was a sumptuous, erudite publication. Its Art Nouveau cover was designed by Edward Steichen, and the quarterly printed some of the best of American art criticism, often reproducing reviews of 291 shows from other publications. Most importantly for Stieglitz, Camera Work boasted high-quality photogravures—printed under Stieglitz’s supervision and tipped in by hand—in order to better represent subtle gradations of tone and value. This was seen as a major improvement over the typical halftone reproductions employed in other publications. In the journal’s early years, Stieglitz prominently featured artists of the Photo-Secession, including James Craig Annan, Frank Eugene, Gertrude Käsebier, Edward Steichen, Frederick Evans, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Clarence White, and others. As 291’s exhibition program moved beyond photography to embrace painting and sculpture, the magazine began to cover modern art, taking on a more international focus. With these changes, and the advent of World War I, subscribers dwindled and the publication schedule became increasingly irregular. The last issue of Camera Work (49–50, June 1917) featured early work by Paul Strand, presaging Stieglitz’s own new direction toward straight photography." We were lucky in that Rene had in his possession Camera Work #4 that we all had an opportunity to look at and discuss this remarkable piece of photographic history. Finally, our looking at one of his iconic images..."The Steerage" we discussed globally visual intent and interpretation and how one image comes to represent issues in society eg class...a longish discussion that I could not capture in the moment...you just had to be there. Below is the "The Steerage" image. Next we saw and discussed a set of images Bill shot on his recent trip to NY State and Mass..His narrative is below and he brought in two prints of several of the images he called "Visual Support III." "As a Visual Hunter I always search for whatever others don’t easily see. On a recent trip to Mass MOCA in North Adams MA…a fabulous museum of modern art in a converted factory space…I noticed the old support poles that were left in place as part of the reconstruction. They went largely unnoticed. But I could previsualize their artistic value largely on the basis of their texture and juxtaposition to the surrounding gallery architecture. I call this series “Vertical Support III” The bland and innocuous poles supporting the interior structure looked like this...see below But with a great of pre visualization and some Photoshop magic the images below are some of the image set of Vertical Support III" Lastly, we mentioned a new picture-word book by Teju Cole (writer) and Fazal Sheikh (Photographer) entitled "Archipelago". Both are academics at Harvard ..pictures below
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