NOW ON VIEW IN SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
From Camera Notes to Camera Work: Alfred Stieglitz and Early 20th Century Photography in America
In the early 20th century, photography began to change, in part due to artists like Alfred Stieglitz, who viewed the medium as an art form rather than simply a method of recording life. Two journals of photography helped guide and document this change, Camera Notes and Camera Work.
Camera Notes was published quarterly by the Camera Club of New York from July, 1897 to December, 1902, with two additional issues published in 1903. The journal was edited for most of that time by famed photographer Alfred Stieglitz, whose driving force was to elevate photography as a fine art form.
In addition to showcasing exceptional photographic works as photogravures and half-tone prints, the journal reviewed new processes and tools to keep photographers in touch with the progress of photography, and discussed aesthetics and photography as an art form. The thought that photography, a method of producing an image by machine, could be regarded as a fine art was often dismissed by Stieglitz’s colleagues, many of whom were commercial photographers stuck in old school practices. It was this push-back that forced Stieglitz to resign as the editor of Camera Notes, which ceased publication not long after Stieglitz’s departure.
After leaving his post as editor of Camera Notes, Stieglitz formed a new independent journal, Camera Work, which emphasized a distinction between pictorial and artistic photographers like Stieglitz himself, and other “non-art” photography. Photographic honesty vs. manipulation was a recurring theme. The journal was well-regarded and included some of the most important photographers from the time, American, British and European.
During the last seven years of its publication, Camera Work steered towards a more modern literary and visual aesthetic. Stieglitz’s work also moved toward a more modern, clean-lined aesthetic featuring everyday objects and forms—a style previously shunned by artistic photographers. Camera Work ceased publication during WWI, when resources were slim and the journal was no longer profitable.
Visit Special Collections to view photographs from these two publications including work by Stieglitz (1864-1946), Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882-1966), Clarence H. White (1871-1925), Paul Strand (1890-1976), Gertrude Käsebier (1852-1934), and George H. Seeley (1880-1955).
This display features material from the Minneapolis Athenaeum’s History of Books and Printing Collection. Six displays featuring the Minneapolis Athenaeum’s collections are on view in the Special Collections Department at the Minneapolis Central Library this summer, from June through August 2017.
