Camera Work


Camera Work was a quarterly photographic journal published by Alfred Stieglitz from 1903 to 1917. It is known for its many high-quality photogravures by some of the most important photographers in the world and its editorial purpose to establish photography as a fine art. It has been called "consummately intellectual", "by far the most beautiful of all photographic magazines", and "a portrait of an age the artistic sensibility of the nineteenth century was transformed into the artistic awareness of the present day."

Background

At the start of the 20th century Alfred Stieglitz was the single most important figure in American photography. He had been working for many years to raise the status of photography as a fine art by writing numerous articles, creating exhibitions, exhibiting his own work and, especially by trying to influence the artistic direction of the highly important Camera Club of New York. He was not successful in the latter, and as a result by the spring of 1902 he was both frustrated and exhausted. He had spent the past five years as editor of the Camera Club's journal Camera Notes, where his efforts to promote photography as a fine art form were regularly challenged by the older, more conservative members of the Club who thought photography was nothing more than a technical process. On the contrary, Stieglitz believed the photography is not just a mere source of documenting the facts nor a tool to copy painted art but a new way of expression and creation. Rather than continue to battle against these challenges, he resigned as editor of Camera Notes and spent the summer at his home in Lake George, New York, thinking about what he could do next.
. Published in Camera Work No 21, 1908
His close friends and fellow photographers, led by Joseph Keiley, encouraged him to carry out his dream and publish a new magazine, one that would be independent of any conservative influences. It did not take him long to come up with a new plan. In August, 1902, he printed a two-page prospectus "in response to the importunities of many serious workers in photographic fields that I should undertake the publication of an independent magazine devoted to the furtherance of modern photography." He said he would soon launch a new journal that would be "the best and most sumptuous of photographic publications" and that it would published entirely by himself, "owing allegiance only to the interests of photography." He called the new journal Camera Work, a reference to the phrase in his prospectus statement in which he meant to distinguish artistic photographers like himself from the old-school technicians with whom he had fought for many years. To emphasize the fact that this was an independent journal every cover would proclaim "Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly, Edited and Published by Alfred Stieglitz, New York".

Design and production

Stieglitz was determined from the start that Camera Work would be the finest publication of its day. He asked Edward Steichen to design the cover, a simple gray-green background with the magazine's title, acknowledgement of Stieglitz's editorial control and issue number and date in an Art Nouveau-style typeface created especially by Steichen for the journal. Even the advertisements at the back of each issue were creatively designed and presented, often by Stieglitz himself. Eastman Kodak took the back cover of almost every issue, and at Stieglitz's insistence they used the same typeface Steichen had designed for the cover.
Gravures were produced from the photographers' original negatives whenever possible or occasionally from the original prints. If the gravure came from a negative this fact was noted in the accompanying text, and these gravures were then considered to be original prints.
Stieglitz, always a perfectionist, personally tipped in each of the photogravures in every issue, touching up dust spots or scratches when necessary. This time-consuming and exhausting work assured only the highest standards in every copy but sometimes delayed the mailing of the issues since Stieglitz would not allow anyone else to do it. The visual quality of the gravures was so high that when a set of prints failed to arrive for a Photo-Secession exhibition in Brussels, a selection of gravures from the magazine was hung instead. Most viewers assumed they were looking at the original photographs.
Before the first issue was even printed, Stieglitz received 68 subscriptions for his new publication. With his typical extravagant aesthetic taste and unwillingness to compromise, Stieglitz insisted that 1000 copies of every issue be printed regardless of the number of subscriptions. Under financial duress he reduced the number to 500 for the final two issues. The annual subscription rate at the start was US$4, or US$2 for single issues.

Publishing history

Early years (1903–1906)

The inaugural issue of Camera Work was dated January 1903, but was actually mailed on 15 December 1902. In it Stieglitz set forth the mission of the new journal:
In his first editorial Stieglitz expressed gratitude to a group photographers to whom he was indebted. He listed them in a specific order: Robert Demachy, Will Cadby, Edward Steichen, Gertrude Käsebier, Frank Eugene, James Craig Annan, Clarence H. White, William Dyer, Eva Watson, Frances Benjamin Johnston, and R. Child Baley. Over the next fourteen years he showed a decided bias by publishing many of their photographs while other talented photographers barely received notice.

During this early period Stieglitz used Camera Work to expand the same vision and aesthetics that he had promoted in Camera Notes. He even used the services of the same three assistant editors who worked with him on Camera Notes: Dallett Fuguet, Joseph Keiley and John Francis Strauss. Over the years both Fuguet and Keiley contributed extensively to the journal through their own articles and photographs. Strauss’ role appears to have been more in the background. Neither Stieglitz nor his associate editors received a salary for their work, nor were any photographers paid for having their work published.
One of its purposes of the new journal was to serve as a vehicle for the Photo-Secession, an invitation-only group that Stieglitz founded in 1902 to promote photography as an art form. Much of the work published in Camera Work would come from the Photo-Secession exhibitions he hosted, and soon rumors circulated that the magazine was intended only for those involved in the Photo-Secession. In 1904 Stieglitz attempted to counter this idea by publishing a full-page notice in the journal in order to correct the "erroneous impression…that only the favored few are admitted to our subscription list." He then went on to say "…although it is the mouthpiece of the Photo-Secession that fact will not be allowed to hamper its independence in the slightest degree."
While making this proclamation in the journal, Stieglitz continued to unabashedly promote the Photo-Secession in its pages. In 1905, he wrote "The most important step in the history of the Photo-Secession" was taken with the opening of his photography gallery that year. "Without the flourish of trumpets, without the stereotypes press-view or similar antiquated functions, the Secessionists and a few friends informally opened the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue, New York."

Expanding the realm (1907–1909)

Throughout its publication, it is impossible to view Camera Work separately from the rest of Stieglitz's life. He lived to promote photography as an art form and to challenge the norms of how art may be defined. As his own successes increased, either from recognition of his own photos or through his efforts to organize international exhibitions of photography, the content of Camera Work reflected these changes. Articles began to appear with such titles as "Symbolism and Allegory" and "The Critic as Artist", and the focus of Camera Work turned from primarily American content to a more international scope.
Stieglitz also continued to intertwine the walls of his galleries with the pages of his magazine. Stieglitz's closest friends were represented in both, while many others were granted one but not the other. Increasingly, a single photographer was given the preponderance of coverage in an issue, and in doing so Stieglitz relied more and more on his small circle of old supporters. This led to increase tensions among Stieglitz and some of his original colleagues, and when Stieglitz began to introduce paintings, drawings and other art forms in his gallery many photographers saw it as the breaking point in their relationship with Stieglitz.
While this was taking place, in 1909 Stieglitz was notified about yet another sign of the increasingly difficult times. London's Linked Ring, which for more than a decade Stieglitz had looked to as model for the Photo-Secession, finally dissolved in antipathy. Stieglitz knew this signaled the end of an era, but rather than be set back by these changes he began making plans to integrate Camera Work even further into the realm of modern art.

Beyond photography (1910–1914)

In January, 1910, Stieglitz abandoned his policy of reproducing only photographic images, and in issue 29 he included four caricatures by Mexican artist Marius de Zayas. From this 'point on Camera Work would include both reproductions of and articles on modern painting, drawing and aesthetics, and it marked a significant change in both the role and the nature of the magazine. This change was brought about by a similar transformation at Stieglitz's New York gallery, which had been known as the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession until 1908. That year he changed the name of the gallery to "291", and he began showing avant-garde modern artists such as Auguste Rodin and Henri Matisse along with photographers. The positive responses he received at the gallery encouraged Stieglitz to broaden the scope of Camera Work as well, although he decided against any name change for the journal.
This same year a huge retrospective exhibition of the Photo-Secession was held at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York. More than fifteen thousand people visited the exhibition over its four-week showing, and at the end the Gallery purchased twelve prints and reserved one room for the permanent display of photography. This was the first time a museum in the U.S. acknowledged that photography was in fact an art form, and, in many ways, it marked the beginning of the end for the Photo-Secession.
After the Buffalo show Stieglitz began showcasing more and more art in Camera Work. In 1911 a double issue was devoted to reproductions of Rodin's drawings and analyses of his, Cézanne's and Picasso's work. While this was a very bold move to promote modern art, it did not sit well with the photographers who still made up most of the subscription list. Half of the existing subscribers immediately cancelled their subscriptions.
By 1912 the number of subscriptions had dropped to 304. The shift away from photography to a mix of other art and photography had cost him many subscribers, yet he stubbornly refused to change his editorial direction. In an attempt to inflate the value of the issues in the marketplace and thereby attract more subscribers, Stieglitz began to destroy unwanted copies. The price of back issues soon increased substantially, but the number of paid subscriptions continued to dwindle.

Final years (1915–1917)

By 1915 the cultural changes and the economic effects of the war finally took its toll on Camera Work. The number of subscribers dwindled to just thirty-seven, and both the costs and even the availability of the paper on which it was printed became challenging. Coupled with the public's decreased interest in pictorial photography, these problems simply became too much for Stieglitz to bear. He published issue 47 in January, 1915, and devoted most of it what Steichen referred to as a "project in self-adulation". Three years earlier Stieglitz had asked many of his friends to tell him what his gallery "291" meant to them. He received sixty-eight replies and printed all of them, unedited, in issue 47. As another sign of the changing times, only four of the comments came from photographers – all of the rest were from painters, illustrators and art critics. It was the only issue that did not include an illustration of any kind.
Issue 48 did not appear until October 1916, sixteen months later. In the interim two important events occurred. At the insistence of his friend Paul Haviland Stieglitz had begun another journal, 291, which was intended to bring attention to his gallery of the same name. This effort occupied much of Stieglitz's time and interest from the summer of 1915 until the last issue was published in early 1916. In April 1916, Stieglitz finally met Georgia O'Keeffe, although the latter had gone to see exhibits at "291" since 1908. The two immediately were attracted to each other, and Stieglitz began devoting more and more of his time to their developing relationship.
In issue 48 Stieglitz introduced the work of a young photographer, Paul Strand, whose photographic vision was indicative of the aesthetic changes now at the heart of Camera Work's demise. Strand shunned the soft focus and symbolic content of the Pictorialists and instead strived to create a new vision that found beauty in the clear lines and forms of ordinary objects. By publishing Strand's work Stieglitz was hastening the end of the aesthetic vision he had championed for so long.
Nine months later, in June 1917, what was to be the final issue of Camera Work appeared. It was devoted almost entirely to Strand's photographs. Even after the difficulties of publishing the last two issues Stieglitz did not indicate he was ready to give up; he included an announcement that the next issue would feature O’Keefe's work. Soon after publishing this issue, however, Stieglitz realized that he could no longer afford to publish Camera Work or to run "291" due to the effect of the war and the changes in the New York arts scene. He ended both of these efforts with no formal announcement or notice.
When he closed "291" Stieglitz had several thousand unsold copies of Camera Work, along with more than 8,000 unsold copies of 291. He sold most of these in bulk to a ragpicker, and he gave away or destroyed the rest. Almost all of the copies that remain today came from the collections of the original subscribers.

Legacy

For most of its life Camera Work was universally praised by both photographers and critics. Here are some examples that appeared in photography magazines when Camera Work first appeared:
While Stieglitz definitely deserves this praise, he should not be seen without fault. In spite of Stieglitz's initial statement that Camera Work "owes allegiance to no organization or clique", in the end it was primarily a visual showcase for his work and that of his close friends. Of the 473 photographs published in Camera Work during its fifteen-year existence, 357 were the work of just fourteen photographers: Stieglitz, Steichen, Frank Eugene, Clarence H. White, Alvin Langdon Coburn, J. Craig Annan, Hill & Adamson, Baron Adolf de Meyer, Heinrich Kühn, George Seeley, Paul Strand, Robert Demachy, Gertrude Käsebier and Anne Brigman. The remaining 116 photographs came from just thirty-nine other photographers.
Three complete sets of Camera Work have sold at auction in recent years. A complete set of all 50 numbers in their original bindings sold at Sotheby's in October 2011 for $398,500. In 2007 a second complete set, kept in contemporary clamshell cases, sold for $229,000. A complete set bound into book volumes sold in October 2016 for $187,500.

Gallery


Issues and contents

The complete run of Camera Work consists of fifty-three issues, including three special issues. Three of the numbered issues were double numbers, so only fifty actual journals were published.
Number 1, January 1903
Number 2, April 1903
Number 3, July 1903
Number 4, October 1903
Number 5, January 1904
Number 6, April 1904
Number 7, July 1904
Number 8, October 1904
Number 9, January 1905
Number 10, April 1905
Number 11, July 1905
Number 12, October 1905
Number 13, January 1906
Number 14, April 1906
Special Steichen supplement, April 1906
Number 15, July 1906
Number 16, October 1906
Number 17, January 1907
Number 18, April 1907
Number 19, July 1907
Number 20, October 1907
Number 21, January 1908
Number 22, April 1908
Number 23, July 1908
Number 24, October 1908
Number 25, January 1909
Number 26, April 1909
Number 27, July 1909
Number 28, October 1909
Number 29, January 1910
Number 30, April 1910
Number 31, July 1910
Number 32, October 1910
Number 33, January 1911
Numbers 34-35, April–July 1911
Number 36, October 1911
, In the New York Central Yards, The Terminal, Spring Showers, New York.
Number 37, January 1912
Number 38, April 1912
Number 39, July 1912
Special Number, August 1912
Number 40, October 1912
Number 41, January 1913
Special Number, June 1913
Numbers 42—43, April—July 1913
Number 44, October 1913
Number 45, January 1914
Number 46, April 1914
Number 47, July 1914
No illustrations.
Number 48, October 1916
Numbers 49-50, June 1917