Steichen

[CMoore]

Not that I know anything about him to begin with, but.....I had no idea he shot those "famous" frames of Garbo.......
http://garboforever.com/Garbo_Portraits-03.htm

 

[chriscrawfordphoto]

Steichen earned his living through most of his professional career doing portraits of celebrities.

 

[CMoore]

OK...Thanks.
For some reason, I thought he did everything But Portraits.
He must have lead a fascinating life indeed.......I think he shot WW2 as well.?
By life's end, He must have amassed quite the portfolio.

 

[SchwinnParamount]

He was also the director of the photography department of the New York Museum of Modern Art. Aside from incurring the wrath of Beaumont Newhall (the previous director), he annoyed Ansel Adams and Edward Weston by making a lot of "fuzzy-wuzzies", also known as pictorial photographs.
At some point after WWII, Steichen curated an exhibit called "The Family of Man". It was quite popular and resulted in a best selling book.

 

[bdial]

FWIW, "Family of Man" is really easy to find. I'm not sure I've ever been in a used book shop that doesn't have at least one copy.

 

[TheToadMen]

The "The Family of Man" photo exhibition can still be seen in Clerveaux, Luxembourg. I believe it was restored recently.
see: http://www.steichencollections.lu/en/

 

[Jim Jones]

Steichen is also responsible for much of the official photography in the I. S. Navy in WWII, both as a photographer and as a supervisor. The opinions of Ansel Adams concerning Steichen and Mortensen may have verged on unreasonable.

 

[CMoore]

1. Was that U.S. Navy......the 'I' is a typo.?
2. Not at all familiar with the peripheral, Adams, story. I take it Ansel objected to The War pictures.?
The more (still very little indeed) I read about Steichen, the more fascinating he becomes.

 

[bdial]

Re: #2 above; More likely because of Seichen's Pictoralist history.

 

[Jim Jones]

Yes, that should have been U. S. Navy. how could I make such a mistake?

Adams doesn't even mention Steichen in his autobiography. However, Mary Street Alinder, in her Ansel Adams: A Biography, has much to say, and with much authority. She had helped Adams write the autobiography. In 1940 Adams was involved in the establishment of a department of photography in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. When WWII broke out, Steichen offered Adams the job of building and directing the darkroom and lab that Steichen, as the director of a unit to document Naval aviation. was organizing. That arrangement fell through. Then the director of MoMA invited Steichen to direct the huge exhibit Road to Victory. To Ansel's disgust, the photographs were selected more for their propaganda value than photographic qualities. After the war, Steichen was appointed as director of MOMA's Department of Photography over Ansel's friend, Beaumont Newhall, who eventually resigned. Adams loaned a copy negative of Mount Williamson from Manzanar to Steichen to be printed and used in the massive The Family of Man exhibit. Steichen took unforgivable liberties in presenting the image. That must have been the last straw.

 

[TheToadMen]

Also a good book to read: Group f.64, by Alinder

 

[Jim Jones]

Also a good book to read: Group f.64, by Alinder

Yes, indeed. It's not the first book one should buy on the members of group f.64, but may well be the last anyone will need, with much background and inside information.