DOI issue:
Nr. 174 (August, 1911)
DOI article:Laurvik, J. Nilsen: Alfred Stieglitz, pictorial photographer
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43447#0132
Alfred Stieglitz
GOSSIP: KATWYK BY ALFRED STIEGLITZ
gation, this work has at last won for pictorial
photography a measure of recognition such as
even the most sanguine had never thought possi-
ble. The exhibitions of photography and other
mediums of expression, such as the etchings of
Willi Geiger, the drawings and water colors by
Matisse, the lithographs by Tolouse-Lautrec and
the drawings by Rodin, the water colors of Ce-
zanne, the drawings and water colors of Picasso,
to mention only a few of the unusual art events
held at the Little Galleries, constitute one of the
most brilliant and remarkable series of exhibitions
ever held in any individual gallery in this country.
As initiating a new spirit in the art life of New
York this phase of Mr. Stieglitz’s activities is
worthy of separate consideration.
As may be inferred, Mr. Stieglitz is no willy-
nilly snapshot fiend, bombarding the world with
machine-gun rapidity. As often as not he returns
home with his plates unexposed, failing to find
what he set out to get. He has an infinite
capacity for taking pains, but he scouts the idea
that this is indicative of genius. His photo-
graphs are not experiments. They are the con-
summations of carefully thought-out pictorial pos-
sibilities, the result of long observation. After he
has carefully studied a subject he will return to it
time and again, waiting for days and months with
unfaltering patience for the particular effect de-
sired. Thus, there is a certain sense of finality
about his best prints that comes from his having
discovered what is innately characteristic in a
subject; he has recorded its abiding spirit. The
“You press the button and we do the rest” type
of photography is not included in this category.
There is something more here than a tank-
developed snapshot.
To the man conversant with the technique of
photography there are a hundred and one possi-
bilities in the mere developing of a plate. By
means of restrainers and forcing baths used locally
he can control and regulate the tonal values to a
relative truthfulness that shall approximate the
delicate tonality of nature. In producing a print
the same is true. It is not a sun-baked affair like a
thousand of brick, but a delicately manipulated
result in which all the nuances of light and shade
in the negative have been recorded with skill and
discrimination. For this reason two prints by
Stieglitz are seldom alike. Just as Whistler re-
marked to Menpes that he had his good days for
printing etchings, when every manipulation of the
plate was accomplished with consummate ease, so
the photographic prints of Stieglitz reflect the
fluctuations of his temperament and reveal to an
astonishing degree the flexibility of this so-called
“mechanical” medium of personal expression.
J. N. L.
XXVII
GOSSIP: KATWYK BY ALFRED STIEGLITZ
gation, this work has at last won for pictorial
photography a measure of recognition such as
even the most sanguine had never thought possi-
ble. The exhibitions of photography and other
mediums of expression, such as the etchings of
Willi Geiger, the drawings and water colors by
Matisse, the lithographs by Tolouse-Lautrec and
the drawings by Rodin, the water colors of Ce-
zanne, the drawings and water colors of Picasso,
to mention only a few of the unusual art events
held at the Little Galleries, constitute one of the
most brilliant and remarkable series of exhibitions
ever held in any individual gallery in this country.
As initiating a new spirit in the art life of New
York this phase of Mr. Stieglitz’s activities is
worthy of separate consideration.
As may be inferred, Mr. Stieglitz is no willy-
nilly snapshot fiend, bombarding the world with
machine-gun rapidity. As often as not he returns
home with his plates unexposed, failing to find
what he set out to get. He has an infinite
capacity for taking pains, but he scouts the idea
that this is indicative of genius. His photo-
graphs are not experiments. They are the con-
summations of carefully thought-out pictorial pos-
sibilities, the result of long observation. After he
has carefully studied a subject he will return to it
time and again, waiting for days and months with
unfaltering patience for the particular effect de-
sired. Thus, there is a certain sense of finality
about his best prints that comes from his having
discovered what is innately characteristic in a
subject; he has recorded its abiding spirit. The
“You press the button and we do the rest” type
of photography is not included in this category.
There is something more here than a tank-
developed snapshot.
To the man conversant with the technique of
photography there are a hundred and one possi-
bilities in the mere developing of a plate. By
means of restrainers and forcing baths used locally
he can control and regulate the tonal values to a
relative truthfulness that shall approximate the
delicate tonality of nature. In producing a print
the same is true. It is not a sun-baked affair like a
thousand of brick, but a delicately manipulated
result in which all the nuances of light and shade
in the negative have been recorded with skill and
discrimination. For this reason two prints by
Stieglitz are seldom alike. Just as Whistler re-
marked to Menpes that he had his good days for
printing etchings, when every manipulation of the
plate was accomplished with consummate ease, so
the photographic prints of Stieglitz reflect the
fluctuations of his temperament and reveal to an
astonishing degree the flexibility of this so-called
“mechanical” medium of personal expression.
J. N. L.
XXVII