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ALBERT STIEGLITZ: THE GODFATHER OF MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY

Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Stieglitz

Establishing photography on an equal platform with other forms of visual arts, the American photographer Albert Stieglitz is undoubtedly one of the most significant contributors to the history of photography. A vital force in the development of modern art in America.

Alfred Stieglitz was born on 1 January 1864 in Hoboken, New Jerry. Began as a student in Germany in 1883, the self-taught artist reached far beyond his photographic career and influenced a generation of photographers, painters, and sculptor both directly and indirectly.

In 1905, with Edward Steichen, he founded the Little Galleries of Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue in New York, which later became known simply as 291. Stieglitz elevated photography’s status to the level of painting and sculpture through the numerous pioneering exhibitions that he organized.

Stieglitz was the founder of the Photo-Secessionist and Pictorialist photography movements in the United States and promoted them in “Camera Notes” and “Camera Work”, the two influential journal that he founded and edited.

Besides exhibiting photography in 291, Stieglitz also introduced European modern painters and sculptors to America and fostered America's own modernist figures- including his later wife, Georgia O'Keeffe. Inspired by impressionism Stieglitz work showed a great technical mastery of tone and texture and reveled in exploring atmospherics. Later in life, partially influenced by Cubism and other trends, he became interested in straight photography, favoring more clarity and less lush effects.

Accomplished photographic scientist, photographer, gallery owner, art dealer, collector, and writer Stieglitz was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in 1971. Throughout his life, he fought a great fearless fight for the art and science of photography and was died on 13 July 1946 in New York.

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