Alfred Steiglitz Essay Research Paper Alfred StieglitzAlfred

Alfred Steiglitz Essay, Research Paper ?Alfred Stieglitz? Alfred Stieglitz, was born in January 1st, 1864, in Hoboken, New Jersey, and died in July 13th, 1946, in New York City. In 1902 Stieglitz founded the Photo-Secession Group, as a protest against the conventional photography of the time. He took pictures in a time when photography was considered a only scientific curiosity and not art. The controversy over the art value of photography became widespread. Stieglitz began to fight for the recognition of his chosen medium. Alfred Stieglitz, one of the most important modernist photographers from 1864-1946, had strong influence on aesthetic photography. He wanted to make a point to show that photos were photos and nothing but that.? my photographs look like photographs and

therefore can?t be considered art?(Alfred Stieglitz, 1923). He never changed his thinking by trying to cover up as other photographers did. His work that he so passionately supported and exhibited was promoted at his New York Gallery. Being completely remembered for his greatness as a photographer it was said that “Alfred Stieglitz, photographer, esthete, propagandist, and art dealer, was without doubt the most important single figure in the development of modernism in America…291 became the symbol of perfection in a vacuum, an oasis in the desert of crass commercialism where the creation of beauty was the sole objective and beauty itself was enshrined”(LAAS,6). One of his very well known photographs which marked a turning point for Stieglitz was The Steerage. In this black

and white photograph you are able to depict certain qualities that you normally are unable to see in a colored photograph. For example in this photograph you are able to see the brightness of the light and the shadows that fall across the immigrants faces and the white gangplank to the ship. More specific details that are evident to the eye are the objects such as the railing of white chain, the white suspenders on the man below boarding the ship and the black entrance to the region below. People who looked at this photograph became mesmerized with it?s form and composition that it held. By a particular individual it was stated ? I stood spell bound for a while. I saw shapes related to one another- a picture of shapes, and underlying it, a new vision that held me: simple people:

the feeling of ship, ocean, sky…?(Weston Naef, 1995). While taking a momentary look at this photo the first thing I see in it is the separation that is being made by a white gangplank. As I look longer I see this separation is a separation of class. The poor being located at the lower half of the ship and the wealthier ones at the top. This picture really does depict a sense of reality to those on the outside looking in. The photograph The Steerage really does grasp your attention along with your emotions on how this trip to Europe really was to the People onboard. It is amazing how one photographers graphic vision of shapes and balance and the social setting of the day are all combined in one picture. While Stieglitz was out tromping around New York photographing, he came upon

the streetcar driver patiently watering his horses at the end of the line. In which he took the opportunity to make art out of this sight he saw before him. This photograph became what now known as The terminal, New York. This photograph was taken in New York on a cold winter day. This was back then what Grand Central Station is to us now. This picture is black and white but far from being plain. There are different tones and shapes to be found in each and every area of this picture. There are dark tones, light tones and gray tones making up the entirety of this picture. The shapes that you see in this photograph are in one way or another intertwined together in the photograph. All of these fine are what make a great piece photograph so brilliant. When looking at this photo you