Photography has a rich history in upstate New York, anchored by George Eastman House in Rochester and the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo.
Located on Lake Erie where the Erie Canal meets the Great Lakes, Buffalo, New York is considered to be the first mid-western city in the United States.
The Albright Gallery was founded in 1890 and its splendid Greek atheneum was intended to be part of the 1901 International Pan-American Exposition but it wasn't finished until 1905.
The gallery was ready in 1910 to present the first exhibition of an international movement in photography, the International Exposition of Pictorial Photography, organized by Alfred Stieglitz, owner of Gallery 291 in New York City and founder of Camera Work in 1903. A thriving industrial center was eager to become one of the first American cities to possess a major museum. The exhibition put the Albright Gallery in the spotlight.
Among the images hanging on those walls (above) were Edward Steichen's iconic Flatiron, specially reprinted for the occasion.
The Albright Gallery was founded in 1890 and its splendid Greek atheneum was intended to be part of the 1901 International Pan-American Exposition but it wasn't finished until 1905.
The gallery was ready in 1910 to present the first exhibition of an international movement in photography, the International Exposition of Pictorial Photography, organized by Alfred Stieglitz, owner of Gallery 291 in New York City and founder of Camera Work in 1903. A thriving industrial center was eager to become one of the first American cities to possess a major museum. The exhibition put the Albright Gallery in the spotlight.
Among the images hanging on those walls (above) were Edward Steichen's iconic Flatiron, specially reprinted for the occasion.
Two others, whose work Stieglitz had discovered in 1904, were included, but their reputations have faded from view along with Pictoralism, until recently.Myra Albert Wiggins (1869-1956) had already achieved the first one woman show at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1900. From Oregon, she had studied painting with William Merritt Chase at the Art Students' League in New York
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.George H. Seeley (1880-1955) took up photography while studying in Boston. Seeley's most evocative works of his native New England make use of techniques he admired in Japanese prints. This has the effect of making them appear like abstract compositions.
Images:
1. Karl Struss - The Albright Gallery, 1910, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.
2. Edward Steichen - The Flatiron, 1904 repr. 1909, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.
3. Myra Albert Wiggins - The Edge of the Cliff, 1903, Martin-Zambito Fine Arts, Seattle.
3. Myra Albert Wiggins - The Edge of the Cliff, 1903, Martin-Zambito Fine Arts, Seattle.
4. George H. Seeley - Untitled, 1909, Berkshire Museum, Massachusetts.
4. George H. Seeley - Winter Landscape, 1909, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.
6 comments:
The pictures by Seeley are quite incredible in their quietness and simplicity. Really lovely.
Love that Steichen. It's emblazoned the header of my blog since I began a few months ago.
Truly breathtaking! Each is a wonderful composition and when you think what photographers had to lug around to take these photos. Compare this to our pocket-sized digital cameras, which are not so very new in the great scheme of things. (Or perhaps they are, what with time moving so screamingly fast lately.)
Neil, Seeley gave up photography circa 1920, dissatisfied with changes in developing chemicals. Stieglitz had promoted Seeley's work - and Wiggins's - but Stieglitz was a polarizing figure. Landscapes were Seeley's most impressive works; the others are often good but his photographs of women use the stock idioms of the time. I like his ability to make the viewer look closely at landscapes.
Lorenzo, I think Steichen was right to reprint 'The Flatiron'. The 1909 version is gorgeous - and I wanted to highlight images that I could verify were at the Albright Gallery in 1910.
Jeanne, I wish I knew how to enlarge the Struss photo of the exhibition enough to know what images we're looking at. If you've never been to Buffalo, the park that wraps around the Albright and along the river nearby was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. I wonder if Struss did some exterior shots.
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