Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer, publisher, curator, and tireless advocate for photography as a fine art. Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, and educated partly in Germany, Stieglitz helped transform photography from a documentary medium into a serious modern art form. In 1902, he founded the Photo-Secession movement, promoting photographers whose work emphasized atmosphere, composition, and personal expression. Through his influential journal Camera Work and his New York gallery “291,” he introduced American audiences to both pioneering photographers and European modernists, including Picasso, Matisse, and Cézanne. Stieglitz’s own photographs, from intimate portraits to his celebrated cloud studies known as Equivalents, explored mood, abstraction, and emotional resonance. He also created a powerful photographic record of artist Georgia O’Keeffe, his wife and frequent subject. His legacy rests not only in his images, but in his role in shaping modern art in America.

Nationality
American
Born
1864
9 works by Alfred Stieglitz
Black and white photograph of New York City skyline with tall buildings, a bridge, and steamboat on water below.
The City of Ambition
A steam locomotive with billowing smoke travels along curved railway tracks through an industrial urban landscape under hazy skies.
The Hand of Man
1902
A tall sapling with sparse foliage stands in flooded ground beside a figure, rendered in sepia tones on a textured background.
Spring Showers
1900
Wet pavement reflects bare trees and illuminated buildings in a nighttime urban plaza rendered in black and white.
Reflections at Night, New York
1898 · photomechanical print
A man with a stern expression leans toward a car window, his hand resting on the frame, in a black and white photograph.
ASC.2012.96 Stieglitz
1932 · photograph
Cloud formation photographed from below, showing white and gray tones with textured cumulus clouds against a lighter sky.
Equivalent
1926 · photograph
Horse-drawn streetcar with passengers in snowy urban street lined with buildings, photographed in black and white.
The Terminal
1892
Black and white photograph of a woman seated on a porch, drinking from a cup while holding a plate.
Georgia O'Keeffe [Seated on Porch, Drinking], 1931
1931
Two pale hands intertwined against a dark background in a sepia-toned photograph.
Georgia O'Keeffe Hands