Alfred Stieglitz: New York

by Bonnie Yochelson

Iconic images of the city from one of the masters of photography collected for the first time in a charming homage to lost New York. Here is "The City of Ambition" -- the New York that inspires dreams, the Gotham of the early twentieth century, when grand skyscrapers sprouted everywhere amid columns of steam. Alfred Stieglitz -- the legendary art impresario and husband of Georgia O'Keeffe -- forged a paean to his native city, finding inspiration on the streets, from the harbor ferry, and in the high-rise views. In her essay, respected art historian Bonnie Yochelson places Stieglitz's work within the context of the burgeoning commercial world around him and other artists of the period. Stieglitz witnessed a key period in New York's history when the city suddenly transformed into a modern metropolis. As a child, he grew up in an upper Fifth Avenue brownstone still surrounded by empty lots and dirt roads. Naturally, he was fascinated by the monumental buildings rising around him, and you can sense his wonder in these images. Among the classic buildings he so artfully captured here are the (now demolished) Madison Square Gardens, the Flatiron, Rockefeller Center, the Waldorf Astoria, the Chrysler Building, and the Empire State Building. His images formed archetypes that would go on to shape the imagination of generations. This intimate volume makes for a beautiful souvenir of timeless New York, a city of striving and dreaming.

Genres: Photography

96 pages, Hardcover

First published September 14, 2010

Reviews

[Laurie Siegel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a terrific overview of Alfred Stieglitz's photographic paean to New York City. He often took photos out of the rear windows on the 30th of the building he and his wife, artist Georgia O'Keeffe, lived in in midtown Manhattan and his work documented the changes in the growth of New York City from 1900 to the 1930's. The author, Bonnie Yochelson, has a section in the back where she notes the details of the photographs to show Stieglitz's growth as a photographer and an observer of the city he loved. Excellent overview.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Small book that accompanied a 2010 exhibit at the Seaport Museum in NYC. A short 30-page essay discussing Stieglitz's inspiration and lifelong project of photographic the city he was born and died in and approximately 40 plates of works. My primary view of Stieglitz is as the foremost proponent of moving European modern art into America and also conceptualizing American Modern Art as a movement within itself. In the world of photography, I usually feel that he lacks an intuitive ability for composition and feeling in his photographs, although i fully feel that his motivation to be a photographer was to convey what was to him the expression of soul into an image he could share with others. However, his place in the history of photography and American art can never be disputed. He brought to the forefront so many other photographers who were able to make the connection that I feel he never truly was able to make. This was a brief enjoyable book, especially to someone unfamiliar with any of Stieglitz's NYC photographs, most of which I have seen before. Admittedly, I find his "window view" photographs most intriguing for their time. His experimentation with form, allaying with the Cubist movement in Europe at the time, and the feeling of emotional detachment and severity that these photographs convey are finally what Stieglitz was looking for in all his professional years as an artist: a conveyance of his state of being at that point in his life.