Inspired by a Master: Alfred Stieglitz
Steerage by Alfred Stieglitz 1907
Equivalent by Alfred Stieglitz
Equivalent by Alfred Stieglitz
Equivalent by Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz was an American Photographer from the start of the 1900’s, and one that is Hugely influential in my work. Stieglitz was not only a great photographer in his own respect but also played a big part in making photography an art form as well as influencing and giving opportunities to other artist. He is most well known for the picture title steerage from 1907 show at the top of this post. The photo shows the division in the social classes and the manner in which they were treated.
As I said Stieglitz is a huge influence on my work, the influence strangely doesn’t come from his own work though, it comes from the stories surrounding his work. taking photo history classes in College one thing that would always come up would be Stieglitz gallery “291“. In this gallery he showed works of his own as well as Picasso ( which I have heard you could have bought the whole show of paints for around 400 dollars), Paul strand, Georgia O’Keeffe, and many others. Even with Stieglitz’s strides forward in respects to photography as an art form I have been told that there was criticism that his pictures were good because of subject matter, if he was not in New York seeing the things he was seeing it wouldn’t be as good. In response to to these cliques Stieglitz created this series of work “Equivalent”. These Photographs were all of clouds and how he used there abstract form to fill the frame. This work is not only a great example of the start of abstract photograph but it shows that subject matter doesn’t determine a photographs value great pictures are every where. Every one can see clouds and photograph clouds its the artist that frames the every day in to art.
The idea that the every day things like clouds could be photographed as art with the right eye has become a staple in my style of work. For a while when I heard about this project i would try and do the same but photographing just clouds but they never really did any thing for me. I do how ever photograph the sky alot with other objects to frame or give context to whats happening in the sky. in my Sky photo below the cloud add a texture to the almost silhouetted city sky line
Cloud Burst Copyright 2010 Bryan Moore
