Photograph by Edward Steichen Vogue, July 15, 1928 via
Category Archives: Edward Steichen
Heavy Roses by Edward Steichen (1914)
Edward Steichen, Heavy Roses, Voulangis, France, 1914 photogravure via
Greta Garbo by Edward Steichen (1928)
Clara Bow for Vanity Fair (1928)
Edward Steichen, Clara Bow for Vanity Fair, 1928 via
The First Modern Fashion Photography Shoot: Paul Poiret by Edward Stechein (1911)
In 1911, publisher Lucien Vogel dared photographer Edward Steichen to promote fashion as a fine art in his work. Steichen responded by snapping photos of gowns designed by leading French fashion designer Paul Poiret, hauntingly backlit and shot at inventive angles.
The photographs were published in the April 1911 issue of the magazine Art et Décoration. According to historian Jesse Alexander, the occasion is:
“now considered to be the first ever modern fashion photography shoot,”
The garments were imaged as much for their artistic quality as their formal appearance
Edward Steichen, L’Art de la Robe by Paul Poiret in Art et Décoration, 1911 via
Edward Steichen, L’Art de la Robe by Paul Poiret in Art et Décoration, 1911 via
Edward Steichen, L’Art de la Robe by Paul Poiret in Art et Décoration, 1911 via
Edward Steichen, L’Art de la Robe by Paul Poiret in Art et Décoration, 1911 via
Edward Steichen, L’Art de la Robe by Paul Poiret in Art et Décoration, 1911 via
Edward Steichen, L’Art de la Robe by Paul Poiret in Art et Décoration, 1911 via
Edward Steichen, L’Art de la Robe by Paul Poiret in Art et Décoration, 1911 via
Edward Steichen, L’Art de la Robe by Paul Poiret in Art et Décoration, 1911 via
Edward Steichen, L’Art de la Robe by Paul Poiret in Art et Décoration, 1911 via
Pictorialism from the Turn-of the-Century Photo-Secession Movement
The Photo-Secession was an early-20th-century movement that promoted photography as a fine art.
A group of photographers, led by Alfred Stieglitz and F. Holland Day in the early 1900s, held the then controversial viewpoint that what was significant about a photograph was not what was in front of the camera but the manipulation of the image by the artist/photographer to achieve his or her subjective vision.
The movement helped to raise standards and awareness of art photography. Proponents of Pictorialism, which was the underlying value of the Photo-Secession, argued that photography needed to emulate the painting and etching of the time. Pictorialists believed that, just as a painting is distinctive because of the artist’s manipulation of the materials to achieve an effect, so too should the photographer alter or manipulate the photographic image. Among the methods used were soft focus; special filters and lens coatings; burning, dodging and/or cropping in the darkroom to edit the content of the image; and alternative printing processes such as sepia toning, carbon printing, platinum printing or gum bichromate processing.
The “membership” of the Photo-Secession varied according to Stieglitz’s interests and temperament but was centered around the core group of Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Clarence H. White, Gertrude Käsebier, Frank Eugene, F. Holland Day, and later Alvin Langdon Coburn.
Mending Nets by Alfred Stieglitz. Carbon print, 1894 via
“A Study” by Gertrude Käsebier. Platinum print, ca. 1898 via
By Clarence H. White, 1871 via
Actress Minnie Maddern Fiske by Fred Holland Day, created ca. 1895-1912 via
The Brass Bowl by Edward Steichen. Photogravure on tissue-thin Japan paper. Literature: Camera Work 14, 1906 via
Minuet by Frank Eugene, Photogravure on tissue-thin Japan paper. Literature: Camera Work 30, 1910 via
The Bubble by Alvin Langdon Coburn. Gum bichromate over platinum print, 1908 via
Edward Steichen, Foxgloves, France (1926)
Edward Steichen, Foxgloves, France, 1926 via
American Dancer Jean Barry (1930s)
A Collection of Photos Feat. Martha Graham – The ‘Picasso of Dance’
Martha Graham (1894 – 1991) was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on the modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.
Rejecting classical European ballet, the dancer searched in primitive societies the inspiration for her spiritual-like naturalistic moves. With her shows, she illustrates strong emotions and her social battles, such as Chronicle, in 1936 that depicted depression and isolation.
Graham was the first dancer ever to perform at the White House, travel abroad as a cultural ambassador, and receive the highest civilian award of the US: the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In her lifetime she received honors ranging from the Key to the City of Paris to Japan’s Imperial Order of the Precious Crown. She said, in the 1994 documentary The Dancer Revealed:
“I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It’s permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable.”
Her style, the Graham technique, fundamentally reshaped American dance and is still taught worldwide.
Edward Steichen, Portrait of Marthe Graham, 1931 via
Edward Steichen, Portrait of Martha Graham, New York, 1931 via
Barbara Morgan, Portrait of Martha Graham in “Lamentation”, 1935 via
Barbara Morgan, Portrait of Martha Graham in “Lamentation”, 1935 via
Barbara Morgan, Portrait of Martha Graham “Frontier”, 1935 via
Portrait of Martha Graham, 1930’s via
Vintage Photos of the First “Supermodel” Marion Morehouse (1920s)
Marion Morehouse (1906-1969), was a fashion model who rose to prominance in the late 20s and early 30s, sitting for Vanity Fair and Vogue photographer Edward Steichen. The pair created some strikingly modernist photographs. According to Steichen Morehouse was:
The greatest fashion model I ever photographed …. When she put on the clothes that were to be photographed, she transformed herself into a woman who really would wear that gown … whatever the outfit was.
She was also a favorite of Cecil Beaton and French Vogue‘s Baron George Hoyningen-Huene. Morehouse was of Choctaw Indian ancestry, with brown eyes and an angular frame After her modeling career ended, she took up photography herself.
Later she became the third wife of author and painter E.E Cummings. When Cummings met Marion Morehouse in 1932, he was in the middle of a painful split from his second wife, Anne Barton. Although it is not clear whether the two were ever formally married, Morehouse lived with Cummings in a common-law marriage until his death in 1962. Morehouse died on May 18, 1969, while living at 4 Patchin Place, Greenwich Village, New York City, where Cummings had resided since September 8, 1924
Marion Morehouse in a Chanel ‘mermaid’ dress, 1929,
by Edward Steichen
Marion Morehouse, in the apartment of Conde Nast, wearing a beaded
white chiffon dress by Chanel, and ankle-strap shoes by Delman, 1927,
photo by Edward Steichen
ca. 1926, Marion Morehouse in back view, wearing a moire gown
with a plunging back and a huge bow; designed by Louiseboulanger
Image by © Condé Nast Archive/CORBIS
Lee Miller; Marion Morehouse, bromide print, 1929
by Cecil Beaton © Condé Nast via National Portrait Gallery
Edward Steichen, Marion Morehouse wearing Cheruit, 1928
© Condé Nast Archive/Corbis.
Edward Steichen, Marion Morehouse, wearing sequined dress by Cheruit, 1927
© Condé Nast Archive/Corbis.
FROM THE BYGONE 
