Edward Steichen

EDWARD STEICHEN (Luxembourg, 1879 - West Redding, Connecticut, 1973).
"The sea", 1904.
Platinum photograph mounted on original black paper on cream paper (original).
Presents label on the back of German collection (Hamburg 1971).
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 13 x 17,5 cm; 29 x 37 cm (frame).
Edward Steichen was a key figure in 20th century photography, directing its development as a leading photographer and influential curator. Steichen arrived in the United States in 1881. He painted and worked in lithography, before turning to photography in 1896, and first exhibited photographs at the Philadelphia Salon in 1899. Steichen became a naturalized citizen in 1900 and, after exhibiting at the Chicago Salon, received the support of Clarence White, who introduced him to Alfred Stieglitz. Steichen practiced painting in Paris intermittently between 1900 and 1922; there he met Rodin and was in contact with modern art movements, so he was able to advise Stieglitz on the selection of exhibitions. In 1901 he was elected a member of the Linked Ring Brotherhood in London, and in 1902 he co-founded the Photo-Secession and designed the first cover of Camera Work, in which his work was often published. In New York, Steichen helped Stieglitz establish the Small Galleries of the Photo-Secession, which became known as "291," and in 1910 he participated in the International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography in Buffalo. During World War I, he directed aerial photography for the Army Expeditionary Forces. Shortly thereafter he gave up painting, along with the vestiges of Pictorialism, and adopted a modernist style. He was chief photographer for Condé Nast from 1923 to 1938, while doing freelance advertising work. Commissioned as a lieutenant commander in 1942, Steichen was appointed director of the U.S. Naval Photographic Institute in 1945; there he supervised combat photography and organized the Road to Victory and Power in the Pacific exhibitions. He was director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art from 1947 to 1962, and was responsible for more than fifty exhibitions, including The Family of Man in 1955, the most popular exhibition in the history of photography.
Steichen received countless awards and honors, including the title of Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, an honorary fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Art Directors Club of New York Award, the U.S. Camera Achievement Award for "Most Outstanding Individual Contribution to Photography" (1949), and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1963). Major exhibitions of his work have been held at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris, the ICP and the George Eastman House.