Alfred Stieglitz Analysis

Photographer Data Alfred Stieglitz was an iconic photographer and gallery owner, who creates abstract art or symbolism in high-quality fashion. He was born on January 1, 1864 at Hoboken, New Jersey in a German-Jewish family. He spent most of his life in New York City, molding his photographs and leading a group of artists, called the Photo-Secessionist movement. They were a group, who looked for as much skillful and creative potential as possible of what a photographer can do. Because he was a gallery owner, he stored artwork such as Picasso’s paintings and his own abstract art of clouds, called the Equivalent series, in his gallery called, 291. To recognize his accomplishments, he was the editor of The American Amateur Photographer. He also
Stieglitz called these “composite portraits”. This term means a series of photos spanning for about many years. This can be found in his portraits of his wife, Georgia O’Keefe. In his portraits of Georgia O’Keefe, he wanted to express how people and all things were always constantly changing. To do that, he spanned those photographs of O’Keefe in a matter of 20 years - 1917 to 1937. Stieglitz made an astounding 329 photographs of O’Keefe, which 45 of them were nudes. To make this photo have that abstract and symbolizing quality, he wanted to synthesize his understanding of his wife by revealing the underlying qualities of her. With different positions of her portraits, he came to realize that significance of O’Keefe can be expressed emotionally through her use of torso, feet and hands. Therefore, he began to focus his camera on each part of her body. Stieglitz wanted to show the individuality of O’Keefe. The figurative result of this series of photos shows the physical and emotional transformation of O’Keefe, which displays the many different versions or “selves” of her.

In his images of New York City, Stieglitz used the same concept of abstraction. In his photo, called The Hand of Man, it shows a train with the burning coal smoking out of it. There are also train tracks that accompany the vehicle, and the picture shows a bunch of the tracks converging to change the direction of the train.
In order for him to be different from other photographers, he had to be a little critical to get to where he was going. The deliberate practice and experimentations throughout his 40 year career may have also been a burden to him. Yet, he was one of those that had to take a lot of photos and only a few of them were really good. Though, he gained so much insight throughout that time span. As he practiced and practiced, he learned more about the potential of photography that at first were thought impossible. Though he had to stop at 1937 due to his health, his legacy has helped to inspire others, who can create their own path to match Stieglitz’s definition of “idea