Edward Steichen’s Pictorial Years

Midterm Project, Option 1

GS625 History of Photography OL1

March 2010

Shannon R. Mason

Edward Steichen is unquestionably one of the most prolific, multifacedted,

influential, and controversial figures in the history of photography (Brandow &

Ewing, 2007). Though his career spanned nearly three decades some of Steichen’s

most important contributions to the Art of photography were in his late teens and

early twenties during the Pictorial movement. Steichen had a long, varied, and

successful career as a founding member of the photo-secession, the designer of the

covers of Camera Work a periodical supporting the photo-secession, and the

youngest member of the Linked Ring- an English circle of photographers, and having

received countless accolades (Brandow & Ewing, 2007; Goldberg & Silberman,

1999; Marien, 2010).

Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz had a strong collaborative friendship for

almost fifteen years in which time they were two of the founding members of the

Photo-Secessionist group, promoting photography as an artistic medium. They also

brought the work of European artists such as Matisse and Picasso to an American

audience at the ‘291’ gallery in New York, which Stieglitz set up in 1905. Steichen’s

contributions were so great that Picasso is quoted as saying, “the whole cultural life,

as far as painting was concerned, was changed by Steichen’s bringing modern art to

America” (Brandow & Ewing, 2007, p.16).

Pictorialism was an international movement that began in the mid 1880’s,

peaked in the 1900’s and continued on into the 1920’s (Miren, 2010). The Pictorial

movement was grounded in the debate of photography as Art or mere

documentation. Pictorialists fought for the status of photography as fine art, equal to

painting and sculpture (Goldberg & Silberman, 1999). They asked that their work be

judged for its aesthetic and formal qualities which differed greatly from the

tradition of photography as a tool of documentation and amateur sentimentality

(Brandow & Ewing, 2007). Pictorialism aimed to distinguish sentiment from

sentimentality, where sentiment went beyond the appearances of things to reveal

the inherent emotion and beauty that might be found in the subject itself (Brandow

& Ewing, 2007; Marien, 2010).

Steichen himself stated, “emotional reaction to the qualities of places, things

and people became the principal goal in my photography,” and in deed it was for

those in the Pictorial movement. The words poetic, naturalistic, and impressionistic

were used to describe the soft focus, tonal, flattened, watercolor like qualities that

emerged as trademarks of the pictorial style (Brandow & Ewing, 2007; Goldberg &

Silberman, 1999; Marien, 2010). Art historian Dennis Longwell has pointed out that,

“pictorial imagery, Steichen’s in particular, corresponds in style to French

Symbolism, and American tonalism.”

Preferred subjects of pictorialists were portraits, landscapes, and figure

studies (Goldberg & Silberman, 1999). They were partial to “the crepuscular

moment to sun drenched daylight, the quiet, intimate pond to dramatic mountain

wilderness” (Rosenblum, 2007). Other characteristic traits of pictorial work

included; subdued middle grey tones, peaceful agrarian subjects, scenes infused

with fog and shadows, tonal complexity, and a favoritism for procedures which

allowed for the hand-working of negatives and prints (Marien, 2010).

Pictorialists rejected the principals of the “instant image,” industrially

prepared papers, silver emulsions, and precision lenses (Brandow & Ewing, 2007).

Edward Steichen and others in the movement often used techniques and materials

to create surface effects that mimic brushwork by rubbing or scratching the

negative (Brandow & Ewing, 2007; Goldberg & Silberman, 1999). They used hand-

coated or handmade papers and optics calculated to produce aberrations or

carefully controlled blurring (Brandow & Ewing, 2007).

Steichen’s work emphasized design and powerful graphic contrasts (Marien,

2010). In them are the soft middle gray tones of the platinum printing process, or

the pigment and texture made possible by the gum-bichromate process. Steichen

also worked with the Bromoil process, which allowed him to apply color to the print

with a brush; and the autochrome process- the color photography process of the

time, known for muted colors and pebbled surface (Marien, 2010; Steichen, 2000).

The vague shapes and subdued tonalities of the style can be seen in Woods Interior.

EDWARD STEICHEN. Woods Interior, 1898. Platinum print. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1933

Woods Interior was the inspiration for my first attempt at making an image

with the styles of Pictorialism and Steichen himself. My images try to avoid the

abundant gimmickry of the digital darkroom and instead capture the sentiment that

was as the core of the Pictorial movement. I used a combination of camera work and

the digital darkroom - much as Steichen’s work was a combination of his camera

work and processing techniques.

Steichen’s early photographic experimentation lead him to try what he titled,

“diffusion.” Using a four by five inch primo folding view camera, he would create

soft, dream like effects, by using selective focus on the foreground and carefully

blurring the background, or by wetting his lens-often with saliva- all while slightly

vibrating his camera (Brandow & Ewing, 2007; Steichen, 2000).

For The Pool-Evening, Steichen used a plate camera and would focus on the

foreground, which he would see on the ground glass at the back of the camera. He

would have had to estimate the size of the diaphragm (aperture) he should use to

have the dark background expose, as it would have been too dark for him to seen it

on the ground glass at the back of the camera (Steichen, 2000). Technique aside, in

The Pool-Evening Steichen was able to transform a pool of water interrupted by clots

of mud into a compositionally sound image with the painterly characteristics and

tonality of the Pictorial movement adding to a growing number of works that

collectively aided in the recognition of photography as a Fine Art (Brandow &

Ewing, 2007; Mirean, 2010; Steichen, 2000).

EDWARD STEICHEN. The Pool-Evening. 1899. Gum Platinum Print. Milwaukee: A Symphony to a Race and to a Soul.

To make my images I first had to deal with how far technology has come by

compensating for all of the compensations that digital cameras now make for the

photographer. I turned the camera on manual mode, switched off my autofocus, and

turned off the anti-vibration feature on my lens. I used selective focus on the

foreground and allowed the background to blur slightly. Then I wiped saliva over

the top of my lens with my thumb along the tree line to further soften the branches.

I was attempting to emulate the vague shapes and subdued tonalities that can be

seen in Woods Interior and Pool -Evening. Although Steichen was known to have

used, and purposefully kicked, tripods when making his images my first two are

hand-held. I found the natural vibrations of my own body aided the overall effect.

In my post process, rather than painting tones in as Steichen might have

done if he were using a gum bichromate or bromoil process, I de-saturated my

image, remaining true to the soft middle grey tones of the platinum printing style.

SHANNON R. MASON. Woods. 2010. Digital. Color.

Since it was not in my means to print my images using methods similar to

those used by Steichen, I chose instead to focus on the compositional and technical

aspects of how he created his photographs and with what intent. Steichen was taken

with the Belgian Symbolist Maurice Maeterlinck’s writing on the qualities of silence,

“when all the secret jewels shone on for you, and the slumbering truths sprung to

life.” He was moved to paint and photograph the “night and silence in that mood”

(Brandow & Ewing, 2007, p.84). Steichen’s early photographs were primarily of

late-day and moonlit scenes, especially at dusk in months when the leaves had fallen

from the trees and the day was overcast and wet- these were the times that evoked

the mood and emotion that he sought- and I have sought- to capture in the images

(Steichen, 2000).

EDWARD STEICHEN. The Pond- Moonlight, 1904.

Steichen realized that the most magical element of a photograph was light

and that light could determine the mood and the subject of an image (Steichen,

2000). The elements of moonlight, pond, embankment and row of trees are common

in Steichen’s work and I have integrated them into mine as well (Smith, 1999). He

loved the feelings induced in him by what he called “the haunting, elusive quality of

landscapes” at twilight and moonlight. As a painter and photographer, he

understood how much composition contributed to an image, setting the mood of a

picture (Marien, 2010; Steichen, 2000). These sentiments are clearly evident in

what is at the very least among Steichen’s most noted works, The Pond-Moonlight

and in his Motif D` Hiver- the inspiration for my second image. When making this

image I attempted to emulate the subtle tones of the image while softening the lines

of the boat almost to a point of making it look as though it were melting into the

image. I wanted the strong contrast of the land against the water as Steichen has

done- but with a softness and sensuality.

EDWARD STEICHEN. Motif D` Hiver, 1900. Platinum Print. Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York.

SHANNON R. MASON. Pond, 2010. Digital. Color.

Characteristics of Steichen’s female nude studies included floral themes,

women concealing their faces from the camera, and muted detail to emphasize

curves – instances of which are evident in Dolor and The Little Round Mirror

(Brandow & Ewing, 2007). I remain true to these characteristics in my image, Her.

Steichen also had a pension for symbolism; though his portraits were elegantly

spare he frequently used flowers- patterns, prints, arrangements- as an evocation of

womanhood, and a form of personification in his portraits of women (Brandow &

Ewing, 2007). You can see the flower print fabric in Dolor and the arrangement on

the left wall sconce in my image Her. Whether subject or background, all elements

in Steichen’s portraits retain a simplicity and functional purpose within the frame

(Brandow & Ewing, 2007).

EDWARD STEICHEN. Dolor, 1903. SHANNON R. MASON. Her, 2010. Photogravure. Preus Museum, Norway. Digital. Color.

The Little Round Mirror and Dolor have common characteristics of Steichen’s

early nudes with muted, velvety tones and the graceful S-shaped curve of the bodies,

reflected in the highlights of the shoulder. In the case of The Little Round Mirror the

highlights can also be seen in the round mirror, which, round shapes, and orbs being

symbols of the female form, is not surprising and in keeping with Steichen’s style.

EDWARD STEICHEN. The Little Round Mirror, 1902. Gelatin Silver Print. Paris.

I learned a great deal during this assignment about composing with tone and

light to create a mood, using selective focus to soften an image while also avoiding

an indistinguishable or distracting blur. I learned more about the use of symbolism

in photography and where to derive inspiration. I also learned a great deal more

about how to use post-processing techniques to achieve a desired effect. I had the

most trouble achieving a selective focus that was blurred, but not too much- just

enough to soften distracting details and emphasize the tones and forms in the

images. Achieving the right lighting was also challenging with two of my images

being dependent on weather. I would like to try to make some images in the future

by moonlight, there wasn’t any bright enough for me to experiment in the past two

weeks.

In conclusion, photography historian Catherine Tuggle may have best

summarized Steichen’s varied achievements when she wrote, “Steichen’s

professionalism and accreditation by the art institutions legitimized photography,

thereby freeing it to evolve along its own lines and according to its own special

nature. Credit for the photography-as-art debate cannot be given to anyone but

Steichen” (Brandow & Ewing, 2007, p. 16).

Works Cited

Brandow, T. & Ewing, W. A. (2007). Edward Steichen lives in photography. Thames

& Hudson, London.

Goldberg, V. & Silberman, R. (1999). American photography: A century of images.

Butler & Tanner, Ltd. United Kingdom.

Marien, M. W. (2010). Photography: A cultural history, 3rd Edition. Laurence King

Publishing Ltd, London.

Rosenblum, N. (2007). A world history of photography. 4th Edition. New York:

Abberville Press.

Smith, J. (1999). Edward Steichen: The early years. Princeton University Press.

Massachusetts.

Steichen, J. (2000). Steichen’s legacy. Random House, Inc. New York.