In the history of photography, and more particularly, in the history of American photography, Alfred Stieglitz looms large. Born in 1864, a year or so before the American Civil war ended, Stieglitz died not long after the atom bombs ended World War II. When he was a boy growing up in Hoboken, New Jersey, photography was a complex and even dangerous art. The Daguerreotype was just giving way to the tintype and roll film wouldn’t be invented for another 20 years. But, by the time he died, colour film was an established technology and photography itself had been a medium of the masses for 50 years.
In the history of photography, and more particularly, in the history of American photography, Alfred Stieglitz looms large. Born in 1864, a year or so before the American Civil war ended, Stieglitz died not long after the atom bombs ended World War II. When he was a boy growing up in Hoboken, New Jersey, photography was a complex and even dangerous art. The Daguerreotype was just giving way to the tintype and roll film wouldn’t be invented for another 20 years. But, by the time he died, colour film was an established technology and photography itself had been a medium of the masses for 50 years.
