Biography of Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) was a photographer and entrepreneur in New York city in the early 20th century.
He fostered a modernist view to a group of avant-garde artists, photographers and illustrators. He was the first in the United States to exhibit European modernists Matisse, Cezanne, Picasso, Brancusi & African sculpture. He instigated moving photography from its earlier romanticism into a modernist American vision. In 1902 he founded a break-away camera club, the Photo-Secession, to support and promote progressive American photographers and present exhibitions of their work. To sponsor their work he also founded a journal, Camera Work in 1903. Throughout his life he operated galleries to advance the work of modern American artists and photographers whom he felt embodied the essence of the American character. In 1905 he opened Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, also known as 291 gallery. In 1925-1929 he operated a gallery within the Anderson Galleries with various names: Intimate Gallery, Room 303, The Room. In 1930-1946 he operated An American Place, also known as 509 gallery. Among the photographers and painters shown in his galleries are: Anne Brigman, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Rebecca Salsbury James, Gertrude Kasebier, Joseph Keiley, John Marin, Georgia O’Keeffe, Eduard Steichen, Paul Strand, Clarence White.

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