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Alfred Stieglitz 1864-1946
In 1899 Alfred Stieglitz wrote that photographs of ordinary subjects could have "a permanent value" as art.
Artists who saw my early photographs began to tell me that they envied me; that my photographs were superior to their paintngs, but that unfortunately photography was not an art.... I could not understand why the artists shouldenvy me for my work, yet, in the same breath, decry it because it was machine- made - their...'art' painting -because hand-made, being considered necessarily superior....There I started my fight...for the recongition of photography as a new medium of expressions, to be respected in its own right, on the same basis as any other art form.
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| Two Towers - New York, 1911, |
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"The Hand Camera - its present importance" (1897)
The writer does not approve of complicated mechanisms, as they are sure to get out of order at important moments, thus causing considerable unnecessary swearing, and often the loss of a precious opportunity. My own camera is of the simplest pattern and has never left me in the lurch, although it has had some very tough handling... A shutter working at a speed of one-fourth to one-twenty-fifth of a second will answer all purposes. A little blur in a moving subject will often aid to giving the impression of action and motion. In order to obtain pictures by means of the hand camera it is well to choose your subject, regardless of figures, and carefully study the lines and lighting. After having determined upon these watch the passing figures and await the moment in which everything is in balance; that is, satisfied your eye. This often means hours of patient waiting. My picture, "Fifth Avenue, Winter" is the result of a three hours' stand during a fierce snow-storm on February 22nd 1893, awaiting the proper moment. My patience was duly rewarded. Of course, the result contained an element of chance, as I might have stood there for hours without succeeding in getting the desired pictures. |
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| The Steerage, 1907 |
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The Steerage
'There were men and women and children on the lower deck of the steerage.... I longed to escape from my surroundings and join them.... A round straw hat, the funnel leaning left, the stairway leaning right.... round shapes of iron machinery... I saw a picture of shapes and underlying that, the feeling I had about life...'
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