Alfred Stieglitz

Born in the United States to a German immigrant family, Stieglitz was sent to Berlin in 1881 to study engineering at the Technische Hochschule. There he studied photography and photo chemistry under Hermann Wilhelm Vogel and became involved in the Pictorialist movement, while contributing to the British magazine Amateur Photographer. After returning to the United States in 1890, he settled in New York, where he became editor of American Amateur Photographer. In 1903, he launched Camera Work, a quarterly journal initially dedicated to the Photo-Secession movement. The Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, later known as 291, became a pioneering venue for photography as a fine art and a major centre for the international avant-garde, attracting artists, collectors and members of the American elite. From 1922, he focused increasingly on his own photographic work, developing the Equivalents series of cloud studies. He also opened the Intimate Gallery and later An American Place. Throughout his career as a photographer and gallery owner, Stieglitz played a significant role in promoting the work of his wife, Georgia O’Keeffe.