Famous Photographers - Part 10 - Edward Steichen
From Wikipedia:
Edward Jean Steichen (March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer , painter , and art gallery and museum curator .
Steichen was the most frequently featured photographer in Alfred Stieglitz ' groundbreaking magazine Camera Work during its run from 1903 to 1917. Together Stieglitz and Steichen opened the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, which eventually became known as 291 after its address.
His photos of gowns for the magazine Art et Décoration in 1911 are regarded as the first modern fashion photographs ever published. From 1923 to 1938, Steichen was a photographer for the Condé Nast magazines Vogue and Vanity Fair while also working for many advertising agencies including J. Walter Thompson . During these years, Steichen was regarded as the best known and highest paid photographer in the world. In 1944, he directed the war documentary The Fighting Lady , which won the 1945 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
From 1947 to 1961, Steichen served as Director of the Department of Photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art . While at MoMA, he curated and assembled the exhibit The Family of Man , which was seen by nine million people.
From Smithsonian.com:
For the photographers who followed him, Edward Steichen left a creative wake of Mozartean dimensions. There was not much that he didn’t do, and do extraordinarily well. Landscapes, architecture, theater and dance, war photography—all appear in his portfolio.
When photographing landscapes, at least, he often used a "soft focus" technique, and his earlier works are sometimes difficult to tell apart from his paintings . I would have posted more of his war photographs, but, especially on board the USS Lexington aircraft carrier, he commanded a group of photographers, and I have no way of knowing which photographs were actually his and which were taken by others in his group. As the Smithsonian Magazine indicated, his works were eclectic, .
Following are 50 of his photographs:
1. Moonrise, Marmorak, 1903
2. Musician, 1920
3. Venice, Late Afternoon, 1913
4. Solitude, 1906
5. Rodin, Le Penseur, 1905
6. Horse-Chestnut Blossoms, Long Island, 1904
7. Colette, 1935
8. L'Oiseau du Brancasi, 1926
9. Carl Sandberg, Compilation, 1930
10. Laughing Boxes - West 86th Street, 1922
11. Life Mask of Abraham Lincoln, 1935 ( Buzz note: I find it interesting that many famous photographers use Lincoln or something about him as a subject. In my historic photos article, there was a photo of him watching the Union Army, in another Famous Photographers article, there was a photo of his gloves, and now this.)
12. Conrad Veidt, Lupe Velez (1928) ( Buzz note : Conrad Veidt was a fairly famous actor in Germany but left before the war. He played the part of Major Strasse of the Third Reich in the movie "Casablanca".)
13. Improvisation "George Washington" 1925
14. Fashion Photo for Vogue, 1926
15. Homeless Women, The Depression, 1932
16. Paul Robeson as Brutus Jones, in The Emperor Jones, 1933
17. George Washington Bridge, New York,1931
18. Gloria Swanson, 1924
19. The Flatiron - Evening, 1905
20. Gertrude Lawrence, 1929
21. Borak Minevitch and his Harmonica Band, for Vanity Fair, 1931
22. H. G. Wells, for Vanity Fair, 1931
23. Improvisation, 1928
24. The Maypole (The Empire State Building), 1933
25. Clark Gable, 1931
26. Heavy Roses, Voulaugis, France, 1914
27. J. P. Morgan, 1923
28. The Spiral Schell, 1921
29. Portrait of Shirley Temple, 1938
30. On the Clinic Stairs, 1931
31. Greta Garbo, for Vanity Fair, 1928
32. Evening Shoes by Vida Moore, 1927
33. Isadora Duncan at the Portals of the Parthenon, Greece, 1920
34. Wheelbarrow With Flower Pots, 1920
35. Charlie Chaplin, for Vanity Fair, 1925
36. Spectacles, 1927
37. Amelia Earhart, for Vanity Fair, 1934
38. Hellcat Landing on the USS Lexington, 1943
39. Rudolf Valentino, 1926
40. Splash, 1954
41. Gary Cooper, Hollywood, 1930
42. Experiment in three-Colour Photography, 1906
43. The USS Lexington - The Blue Ghost, 1943 (I THINK it was taken by Steichen, rather than one of his crew)
44. Tin Fish for Tojo, 1942
45. Flagging the landing.
46. The White Cloud, Lake George, 1903
47. Fashion Photo, 1931
48. The Pool
49. Sunday Papers, 1922
50. Grasshopper, 1920
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Another great essay Buzz, thanks.
Did a double take and a chuckle when the Charlie Chaplin shot scrolled into view.
Without your caption I would have sworn it was Jon Stewart being shown.
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Wow, they look like twins AH.
Another great photo essay Buzz. Well done.
Steichen presents an interesting study in style and approach both in subjects and points-of-view.
RE: Photo 1. Check some of the paintings of 19th C. American artist, George Inness.