During his lifetime, Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) was frequently confused with another internationally famous photographer: his friend Edward Steichen. So, too, were Stieglitz’s remarkable achievements often overshadowed by the fame of his wife, artist Georgia O’Keeffe.
But Phyllis Rose’s book Alfred Stieglitz: Taking Pictures, Making Painters (part of Yale’s Jewish Lives series) brings her subject out of the shadows and into his deserved place in history as the person who made “taking pictures” a respected art form. Rose, a literary critic and a retired professor of English literature at Wesleyan University, has combined her knowledge of photography and modern art with an excellent grasp of the historical trends and events that shaped the artistic world from the Victorian and Gilded Ages to the end of World War II.
Alfred Stieglitz was born in Hoboken, New Jersey into a wealthy, highly cultured German-Jewish family. His parents had immigrated to the United States from Germany following the failed political revolution in 1848. Alfred’s father, Edward, was a kunstmensch, an art man who “read Schiller, Goethe, and Shakespeare…studied works by Rubens, Rembrandt, and Leonardo…”
Making large sums of money as a wool merchant in America was of secondary concern to Edward, who transmitted to his children the belief that “Art made people better…an idea dealt a terrible blow…when the land of Beethoven became the land of Dachau.”
Many American colleges and universities in the 1870s and 1880s were “notoriously anti-Semitic,” Rose writes. To protect his three sons and two daughters from the debilitating effects of anti-Semitism and for educational purposes, Edward moved his family to Germany.
Seventeen-year-old Alfred spent a year in the city of Karlsruhe to improve his German. He later took courses at Berlin’s Humboldt University with Professor Hermann Wilhelm Vogel, who introduced him to the new field of photography. Thanks to his family’s financial support, Stieglitz was able to spend nearly 10 years in Europe, mostly in Germany and Italy. He returned to New York City in 1890 with no academic degree.
Again, calling upon his family’s wealth, Alfred opened a series of salons and galleries in Manhattan that featured the work of emerging photographers, including William B. Post, Gertrude Kasebier, and A. Horsley Hinton, as well as avant-garde sculptors Auguste Rodin and Constantin Brancusi, and painter Paul Cezanne.
Stieglitz also introduced audiences in the United States and Europe to the paintings of then-little-known modern artists, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Marcel Duchamp. I was astonished to read the remarkable account of how, in 1911, Stieglitz unsuccessfully attempted to interest the Metropolitan Museum of Art in purchasing 81 works by Picasso for $2,000 – only about $25 a piece! The Met’s curator rejected the offer because he was certain the unknown 30-year-old artist would “never mean anything in America.”
The anti-Semitism his father sought to shield him from as a young student was never far from Alfred. In 1935, for example, an American art critic called him “a Hoboken Jew without knowledge or interest in the historical American background.” Stieglitz’s pioneering vision of what constitutes modern art ran counter to conventional thinking. The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elites who dominated the art scene dismissed him as brash, crass, and disruptive.
The 250-page book includes a generous number of Stieglitz photos, including his best known, “The Steerage,” ostensibly showing Jewish immigrants en route to America, huddled together on the lower deck of a trans-Atlantic steamer. In reality, Rose notes, the ship was actually sailing from New York City to Bremen in Germany, and the crowded passengers, including a man wearing what appears to be a tallit (prayer shawl), were not, in fact, Jews. (Stieglitz himself was traveling first class.)
We also see up-close-and-personal photographs of Stieglitz’s lover and future wife, Georgia O’Keeffe, which, in the 1920s, would have been considered erotic.
In addition to presenting her fascinating biography of Alfred Stieglitz, the author introduces us to some of the history of photography. For example, she gives a detailed description of the intricate process of photography in the years before George Eastman’s creation of photographic film and the invention of the small, portable box camera. Stieglitz’s subjects sometimes had to pose in stillness for three or four minutes in order to create a clear photograph.
Reading Alfred Stieglitz: Taking Pictures, Making Painters gave me a fuller understanding of why Alfred Stieglitz holds such a distinguished place in the American artistic pantheon.
Rabbi A. James Rudin is the former head of the American Jewish Committee’s Department of Interreligious Affairs and author of seven books, most recently, Pillar of Fire: A Biography of Stephen S. Wise. He served as a U.S. Air Force chaplain in Japan and Korea.
Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) alikuwa mchoraji maarufu wa picha na mwandishi wa habari. Hivyo, pia, mafanikio ya ajabu ya Stieglitz mara nyingi yalifichwa na umaarufu wa mke wake, msanii Georgia O'Keeffe. Kitabu cha Phyllis Rose, Alfred Stieglitz: Kuchukua Picha, Kufanya Wasanii (sehemu ya Yale's Jewish Lives) huleta mada yake nje ya vivuli na katika nafasi yake inayostahili katika historia kama mtu ambaye alifanya kuchukua picha aina ya sanaa inayoheshimiwa. Rose, mkosoaji wa fasihi na profesa wa fasihi ya Kiingereza aliyestaafu katika Chuo Kikuu cha Wesleyan, ameunganisha maarifa yake ya upigaji picha na sanaa ya kisasa na ufahamu mzuri wa mwelekeo wa kihistoria na matukio ambayo yaliunda ulimwengu wa kisanii kutoka enzi ya Victoria hadi mwisho wa Vita Kuu ya Pili. Alfred Stieglitz alizaliwa katika Hoboken, New Jersey katika familia tajiri, yenye utamaduni wa juu wa Kijerumani-Yahudi. Wazazi wake walihamia Marekani kutoka Ujerumani baada ya mapinduzi ya kisiasa ya mwaka 1848. Baba yake, Edward, alikuwa msanii ambaye alisoma vitabu vya Schiller, Goethe, na Shakespeare, na kusoma vitabu vya Rubens, Rembrandt, na Leonardo, na kufanikiwa kupata pesa nyingi kama mfanyabiashara wa sufu huko Marekani ilikuwa jambo la pili kwa Edward, ambaye aliwapatia watoto wake imani kwamba sanaa iliwafanya watu wawe bora, wazo ambalo lilipiga sana wakati nchi ya Beethoven ikawa nchi ya Dachau. Ili kuwalinda wanawe watatu na binti zake wawili kutokana na madhara ya chuki dhidi ya Wayahudi na kwa ajili ya elimu, Edward alihamia Ujerumani. Alfred mwenye umri wa miaka kumi na saba alitumia mwaka mmoja katika jiji la Karlsruhe ili kuboresha Kijerumani chake. Baadaye alichukua kozi katika Chuo Kikuu cha Humboldt cha Berlin na Profesa Hermann Wilhelm Vogel, ambaye alimjulisha uwanja mpya wa upigaji picha. Kwa msaada wa kifedha wa familia yake, Stieglitz aliweza kutumia karibu miaka 10 huko Ulaya, haswa Ujerumani na Italia. Alirudi New York mwaka 1890 bila kuwa na shahada ya chuo kikuu. Kwa kutumia utajiri wa familia yake, Alfred alifungua mfululizo wa saluni na maonyesho ya picha huko Manhattan ambayo yalionyesha kazi za wapiga picha wanaojitokeza, ikiwa ni pamoja na William B. Post, Gertrude Kasebier, na A. Horsley Hinton, pamoja na wasanii wa avant-garde Auguste Rodin na Constantin Brancusi, na mchoraji Paul Cezanne. Pia, Stieglitz aliwajulisha wasikilizaji wa Marekani na Ulaya michoro ya wasanii wa kisasa ambao wakati huo hawakuwa wanajulikana sana, kutia ndani Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, na Marcel Duchamp. "Nilishangaa kusoma simulizi la ajabu la jinsi, mwaka wa 1911, Stieglitz alivyoshindwa kumshawishi Jumba la Makumbusho la Sanaa la Metropolitan kununua kazi 81 za Picasso kwa dola 2,000 - karibu dola 25 tu kwa kipande kimoja.""" Mkurugenzi wa Met alikataa toleo hilo kwa sababu alikuwa na uhakika kwamba msanii huyo asiyejulikana mwenye umri wa miaka 30 "hatawahi kumaanisha chochote nchini Marekani". Upinzani wa Wayahudi ambao baba yake alitafuta kumlinda kutoka wakati wa mwanafunzi mchanga haukuwa mbali na Alfred. "Mchambuzi mmoja wa sanaa wa Marekani alimwita ""Mwahudi wa Hoboken asiye na ujuzi au kupendezwa na historia ya Marekani"" na ""maono ya Stieglitz ya upainia ya kile kinachounda sanaa ya kisasa.""" Wasomi Waprotestanti Wazungu wa Anglo-Saxon ambao walitawala eneo la sanaa walimkataa kuwa mwenye ujasiri, mkali, na mwenye kuvuruga. Kitabu hicho cha kurasa 250 kina picha nyingi za Stieglitz, ikiwa ni pamoja na ile inayojulikana zaidi, inayoonyesha wahamiaji Wayahudi wakiwa njiani kwenda Marekani, wakiwa wamekusanyika pamoja kwenye sakafu ya chini ya meli ya baharini. "Kwa kweli, meli hiyo ilikuwa ikisafiri kutoka New York City hadi Bremen, Ujerumani, na abiria wengi, kutia ndani mwanamume aliyevalia kile kinachoonekana kuwa ""shati la sala,"" hawakuwa Wayahudi." (Stieglitz mwenyewe alikuwa akisafiri katika darasa la kwanza.) Pia, picha za karibu na za kibinafsi za mpenzi wa Stieglitz na mke wa baadaye, Georgia O'Keeffe, ambazo, katika miaka ya 1920, zingekuwa zimehesabiwa kuwa za ngono. Mbali na kuelezea maisha ya Alfred Stieglitz, mwandishi anatuonyesha historia ya upigaji picha. Kwa mfano, yeye anatoa maelezo ya kina ya mchakato tata wa upigaji picha katika miaka kabla ya George Eastman 'uumbaji wa filamu ya picha na uvumbuzi wa ndogo, portable sanduku kamera. Nyakati nyingine watu waliochukuliwa na Stieglitz walilazimika kupiga picha kwa dakika tatu au nne ili kupata picha iliyo wazi. Alfred Stieglitz: Kuchukua Picha, Kufanya Wachoraji ilinipa uelewa kamili wa kwa nini Alfred Stieglitz ana nafasi ya kipekee katika pantheon ya kisanii ya Amerika. Rabbi A. James Rudin ni mkuu wa zamani wa Idara ya Masuala ya Kati ya Dini ya Kamati ya Kiyahudi ya Amerika na mwandishi wa vitabu saba, hivi karibuni, Nguzo ya Moto: Biografia ya Stephen S. Wise. Alitumikia akiwa kasisi wa Jeshi la Anga la Marekani huko Japani na Korea.