Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1908 (Heft 21))

A BIT OF COBURN — OUR PICTURES.
HIS number of Camera Work is devoted to the work of Mr.
Alvin Langdon Coburn, of Boston and London. Some of Mr.
Coburn’s pictures are already well known to our readers, six of
them having appeared in Number VI, and six others in Number
XV. The twelve of his more recent productions, shown in this number,
prove that Coburn has kept his early promise, and has justified those who
from the very first had faith in his artistic potentiality.
Coburn has been a favored child throughout his career. Of independent
means, he launched into photography at the age of eight. Gradually, and to
the practical exclusion of everything else, he devoted all of his time to its
study. Originally guided by his distant relative, Holland Day, he, at one
time or another, at home or abroad — the Coburns, mother and son, were
ever great travelers — came under the influence of Kasebier, Steichen, De-
machy, and other leading photographers. Instinctively benefiting from these
associations he readily absorbed what impressed itself upon his artistic self.
Through untiring work, and urged on by his wonderfully ambitious and self-
sacrificing mother, his climb up the ladder was certain and quick. Arriving,
three years ago, in London, for a prolonged stay there, his sudden jump into
fame through the friendship of Bernard Shaw is well known. Shaw’s sum-
ming up of Coburn can be found in Camera Work, Number XV. No
other photographer has been so extensively exploited nor so generally eulo-
gized. He enjoys it all; is amused at the conflicting opinions about him
and his work, and, like all strong individualities, is conscious that he knows
best what he wants and what he is driving at. Being talked about is his
only recreation. At present he is full of color photography. He was not
greatly attracted to the autochrome process when he saw Steichen's color
pictures in London early in the summer. Later, however, in September, he
waxed enthusiastic after having seen, at the Steichen studio in Paris, the col-
lection which was intended for the Photo-Secession Exhibition. Initiated by
Steichen into the process, Coburn was enabled, within ten minutes in the
dark-room, to reap the benefit of a whole summer’s experimenting. Filled
with the possibilities he returned to London loaded with plates. He writes
that, for the present, black and white has lost its fascination, and that he is
reveling in autumn landscapes, in portraits of Shaw and of actresses with
gorgeous costumes and jewels. He informs us that many of the pictures he
has obtained are great. Thus Coburn masters the field of photography and
stands beyond cavil among the very few first-class photographers of the age.
His pictures in this number of Camera Work prove that conclusively.
The gravure plates were made in London, under Coburn's personal super-
vision, by the firm of Waddington. In fact, Coburn did part of the work
himself. The edition was printed in New York by the Manhattan Photo-
gravure Company. The process blocks were made by the Photochrome
Engraving Company, New York, from the original gum-platinotypes which
were recentJy shown in Coburn's one-man exhibition at the Photo-Seces-
sion Galleries. As reproductions these are exceptionally good, interpreting
fully the spirit of Coburn's quality and methods.
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