Stieglitz Series > Late Work

Late Work

The photographs Stieglitz made late in his career—as well as the early negatives he reprinted during this time—reflect his increasing affiliation with modernist straight photography and his self-defined “search for truth.”[1] Eschewing the soft-focus effects of Pictorialism, which sought to imitate the aesthetic of painting, he instead chose to create photographs that resulted from the technical possibilities of the camera itself.

 

Even as Stieglitz’s technique became more pragmatic, his subject matter became more spiritual. While he described his process as one of trying “to get down what I see,” he wrote that his photographs were also “ever born of an inner need—an Experience of Spirit.”[2] He sought to depict something uniquely American in portraits of friends and lovers, New York cityscapes, images of clouds, and scenes from Lake George. His photographs of the dying poplars at Lake George are especially poignant, since these trees’ lifespans are approximately the same as a human life. The titles of works such as Songs of the Sky, Spiritual America, and Equivalents reveal his interest in images as metaphors, even as the photographs themselves were resolutely straight depictions of reality.

 

The materials Stieglitz used also changed. Due to the increasing scarcity of platinum paper (and the unpredictable nature of its replacements, Satista and palladium papers), he turned to the most common material available—gelatin silver postcard stock. Stieglitz used this paper to make contact prints, taking advantage of the commercially manufactured product’s capacity for precise detail. That the wide white margins of his later works’ mounts draw attention to the crisp prints is no accident: Stieglitz labored, sometimes for months, to realize the perfect relationship between mount and photograph.

 

 

[1] Alfred Stieglitz, An Exhibition of Photography by Alfred Stieglitz: 145 Prints, Over 128 of which Have Never Been Publicly Shown, Dating from 1886–1921, exh. cat. (Anderson Galleries, 1921), n.p.

[2] Alfred Stieglitz to David Liebovitz, June 24, 1924, in Sarah Greenough and Juan Hamilton, Alfred Stieglitz: Photographs and Writings (National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1983), p. 209; Alfred Stieglitz to J. Dudley Johnston, Apr. 3 1925, in ibid., p. 208.

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AIC_1949-795_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1923

n
AIC_1949-693_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Rebecca Salsbury Strand, 1922

n
AIC_1949-694_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Rebecca Salsbury Strand, 1922

n
AIC_1949-695_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Rebecca Salsbury Strand, 1922

n
AIC_1949-696_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Rebecca Salsbury Strand, 1922

n
AIC_1949-708_T
Alfred Stieglitz

From Room “3003” – The Shelton, New York, Looking Northeast, 1927

n
AIC_1949-729_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Poplars—Lake George, 1935

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AIC_1949-730_T
Alfred Stieglitz

The Old Maple—Lake George, 1926

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AIC_1949-738_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Barn, Lake George, 1936

n
AIC_1949-739_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Dualities – Dorothy Norman, 1932

n
AIC_1949-740_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Dorothy Norman, c. 1931

n
AIC_1949-741_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Dorothy Norman, 1930

n
AIC_1949-744_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Georgia O’Keeffe, 1933

n
AIC_1949-757_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Georgia O’Keeffe – Hands and Horse Skull, 1931

n
Alfred Stieglitz

House and Grape Leaves, 1934

n
AIC_1949-764_T
Alfred Stieglitz

House and Grape Leaves, 1934

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AIC_1949-766_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Car 2F-77-77, 1935

n
AIC_1949-767_Ta
Alfred Stieglitz

Lake George from the Hill, 1932

n
AIC_1949-768_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Grass and Frost, 1934

n
AIC_1949-771_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Door to Kitchen, Lake George, 1934

n
AIC_1949-773_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Poplars—Lake George, 1932

n
AIC_1949-775_Ta
Alfred Stieglitz

Music – A Sequence of Ten Cloud Photographs, No. II, 1922

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Alfred Stieglitz

Grass and Flagpole, 1933

n
AIC_1949-778_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Grass, 1933

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AIC_1949-780_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Hedge and Grasses – Lake George, 1933

n
aic_1949-781_t
Alfred Stieglitz

The Dying Chestnut Tree—My Teacher, 1927

n
aic_1949-782_t
Alfred Stieglitz

From My Window at the Shelton, West, 1931

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aic_1949-783_t
Alfred Stieglitz

From My Window at the Shelton, West, 1931

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aic_1949-784_t
Alfred Stieglitz

From My Window at the Shelton, West, 1931

n
aic_1949-785_t
Alfred Stieglitz

From My Window at An American Place, Southwest, 1932

n
aic_1949-786_t
Alfred Stieglitz

New York from the Shelton, 1935

n
aic_1949-787_t
Alfred Stieglitz

From My Window at An American Place, North, 1930/31

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aic_1949-788_t
Alfred Stieglitz

From My Window at An American Place, North, 1931

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aic_1949-789_t
Alfred Stieglitz

From My Window at An American Place, North, 1931

n
AIC_1949-790_T
Alfred Stieglitz

From My Window at An American Place, Southwest, 1932

n
AIC_1949-791_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, c. 1929

n
AIC_1949-792_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1931

n
AIC_1949-793_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1924

n
AIC_1949-794_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Spiritual America: Songs of the Sky A1, 1923

n
AIC_1949-796_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1930

n
AIC_1949-797_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, from Set E (Print 2), 1923

n
AIC_1949-798_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, from Set E (Print 1), 1923

n
AIC_1949-799_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, from Set E (Print 3), 1923

n
AIC_1949-800_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1923

n
AIC_1949-801_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1929

n
AIC_1949-802_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1925

n
AIC_1949-803_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1925

n
AIC_1949-804_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1925

n
AIC_1949-805_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1926

n
AIC_1949-806_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1930

n
AIC_1949-807_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1930

n
AIC_1949-808_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1927

n
AIC_1949-809_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1926

n
AIC_1949-810_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1927

n
AIC_1949-811_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1929

n
AIC_1949-812_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1925

n
AIC_1949-813_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, from Set A (Third Set, Print 1), 1929

n
AIC_1949-814_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, from Set A (Third Set, Print 2), 1929

n
AIC_1949-815_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, from Set A (Third Set, Print 3), 1929

n
AIC_1949-816_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, from Set A (Third Set, Print 5), 1929

n
AIC_1949-817_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, from Set A (Third Set, Print 4), 1929

n
AIC_1949-818_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, from Set A (Third Set, Print 7), 1929

n
AIC_1949-819_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, from Set A (Third Set, Print 8), 1929

n
AIC_1949-820_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, from Set A (Third Set, Print 6), 1929

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