Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1913 (Heft 42-43))

OUR PLATES
rXlHE Plates in this Number of Camera Work are devoted to the work
of Eduard J. Steichen. There are seventeen in all; and they re-
present a series of fourteen photographs and three oil paintings.
This work of Steichen’s was done between the years 1905 and 1911.
Plates I—X are photogravures, all of which were made directly from the
original Steichen negatives, most of which average 10x10 inches. Plates
XI—XIV are duogravures made from four Steichen original “gum” prints.
Plates XV—XVII are reproductions of three Steichen paintings which were
painted in the years 1909 and 1911.
To those students of photography interested in the evolution of Steichen,
the photographer, we recommend the study of Camera Work, Numbers
II, XIV, Steichen Special (issued as Supplementary to Number XIV), XIX,
XXII (Color Photography), XXXIV—XXXV (Balzac Series, Rodin
Number).
In this Number of Camera Work we introduce to our readers, for the
first time, Steichen, the painter. Owing to the great difficulty of obtaining
the quality of reproduction we insist upon, time plays an important role.
This Number of Camera Work has been in hand for several years. The
latest phase of Steichen’s evolution as a painter is not, for obvious reasons,
incorporated in the present series. In the reproductions of both photo-
graphs and paintings some of the quality of the originals is unavoidably lost.
Yet it is marvelous how wonderfully well the Bruckmann Company, of Munich,
—who have done all the plates except four,—under the direction of our
friend Goetz, has managed to keep the spirit of Steichen in all the reproduc-
tions. Likewise, the Manhattan Photogravure Company, of New York,
has done its work well. Of course all the proofs were submitted to Steichen
for corrections at various times before the editions were printed.
We take this opportunity again to put on record, inasmuch as we
believe that Camera Work is making history, our indebtedness to Steichen.
The work of “291” could not have been achieved so completely without his
active sympathy and constructive co-operation, rendered always in the most
unselfish way. It was he who originally brought “291” into touch with
Rodin, the recognized master, and with Matisse, at the time that he was
regarded as “The Wildman.” It has been Steichen also who, living in Paris,
has constantly been on the watch for talent among young Americans there,
and, as for example, in the case of Marin, has introduced them to the spirit
of “291.”
He has embodied that spirit in the most vital and constructive form.

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