The Photo-Secession
Formed in 1902 by Stieglitz to compel “the serious recognition of
photography as an additional medium of pictorial expression” - declaring
himself as the prime figure.
Founding members:
John G. Bullock, Eugene, Kasebier, Edward Steichen and Clarence H. White
Gallery 291
1905 - 1917
Opened by Alfred Stieglitz at 291 Fifth Ave - New York City to feature contemporary national and
International fine art.
The Intimate Gallery 1925 - 1929
Mounted exhibitions featuring the art by seven Americans. The works demonstrated the artists
shared vision, as well as their interest in experimenting with the subjects and materials of
their art.
An American Place 1927 - 1946
Opened on the seventeenth floor of 509 Madison Avenue and closed upon Stieglitzs death in
1946
Publications
Camera Work 1903 - 1917
Quarterly journal established by Alfred Stieglitz in 1903,
New York City. This publication produced
Fifty issues before it was discontinued in June, 1917.
"Let me here call attention to one of the most universally popular mistakes that have to do with
photography - that of classing supposedly excellent work as professional, and using the term
amateur to convey the idea of immature productions and to excuse atrociously poor photographs.
As a matter of fact nearly all the greatest work is being, and has always been done, by those who
are following photography for the love of it, and not merely for financial reasons. As the name implies,
an amateur is one who works for love; and viewed in this light the incorrectness of the popular
classification is readily apparent."
-Alfred Stieglitz
DOCUMENTATION: THE SOCIAL SCENE
Social documentary:
An inexpensive and replicatible means of presenting (supposedly) truthful verifications of visual fact…
How did photography become an important adjunct of the campaigns for social reform?
and was this an auxiliary or subordinate relationship?
Social documentation: who is the audience?
Method(s) of image distribution:
Lantern slides in support of
progressive program
Illustrations in pamphlets, periodicals
and handbills
Supportive material pertaining to
social movements: explanatory lecture,
and supporting text
Distribution and mass production of photographic images:
technology & photographic representation In the media
Photogravure:
A form of intaglio printing, in which a photographic image is chemically etched into a copper plate.
When the plate is inked, then wiped clean, the ink remains in the pits of the plate and is transferred to
a sheet of paper during the printing process. William Henry Fox Talbot experimented with this process
as early as 1852, however, the process was not widely used until the 1870’s when Karl Klic
developed a way of satisfactorily dusting the plates with resinous powder.
Woodburytype:
Photo-mechanical ink based printing process that is credited to W. B. Woodbury ca. 1865 used
primarily for photographic reproduction in small editions to accompany book publications
(as illustrations). The Woodburytype offered a continuous-tone for reproductions by exposing a
negative to dichromated gelatin to create a relief mold, which is then embedded in lead for the printing.
Pigmented gelatin is poured into the mold and transferred to paper under pressure, resulting in an
image in which the deepest parts of the mold produce the darkest areas of the print.
Halftone:
A reproduction made by re-photographing a picture (photographic or other) through a gridded
screen in order to break up the continuous tones into a field of dots. Dark areas of the image
appear as large, closely spaced dots; the dots representing light areas are smaller and farther
apart.
The halftone has been credited to: Frederick Ives in 1888
Jacob A. Riis
How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York, (book produced:1890)
Urban Poor within New York City
Housing tenements: ca. 1880’s
August Sander
To present a “sociological arc” identifying all of German cultural in linear sequence: peasants - statesman -
the unemployed to provide the viewer with the social and cultural dimensions as well as the stratification
of real life.
Published: Antlitz der Zeit
(Face of Our Time)
Farm Security Administration (FSA)
The Historical Section Project
Headed by Roy E. Stryker in 1935 under the direction of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt
(Resettlement Administration,RA) New Deal plan (headed by Rexford Guy Tugwell).
Project goal: To record the activities of the government in helping destitute farmers. Also, to
introduce Americans to Americans.
The FSA employed eleven (11) photographers:
Arthur Rothstein, Theo Jung, Ben Shahn, Walker Evans,
Dorothea Lange, Carl Mydans, Russell Lee, Marion Post Wolcott,
Jack Delano, John Vachon, and John Collier
Approx. images produced during the six year
project: 270,000
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