Edward Steichen
(1879 - 1973)
Edward Steichen was born in Luxemburg in 1879. He grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where his family emigrated in 1881. In 1894, he studied at the Milwaukee Arts Students League and afterwards joined the American Fine Art Company as an apprentice phtographer. In 1900 he went to Paris and studied at the Academie Julian.
From 1906 to 1914, he lived in Paris, where he took up photography and painting.
In 1917, when the United States entered World War I; he commanded the Photographic division of the American Expeditionary Forces for the United States Army in France. He abandoned painting for photography after the war and experimented with various techniques to achieve the precise light and shadow effects he wanted. His photographs showed the misty, soft-focus effects favored by the Pictorialists. In 1899, Steichen presented his first exhibition of photographs becoming a leading pictorial photographer.
After the war, he moved to New York and opened his first studio. He was hired by Conde Nast to photograph for Vanity Fair and Vogue and before long, Steichen was photographer in chief of Conde Nast Publications. Among his subjects was Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Mary Picford, Martha Graham, and Lillian Gish. Steichen combined natural and artificial light and was one of the first photographers to commence fashion sittings by asking his models to try a few artistic poses. He had them pose in interiors and architectural settings which contributed texture and ambiance while providing a framework for fashion. One of Steichen's favorite models was Marion Morehouse, one of the first professional fashion models; and used her frequently. In 1932, Steichen contributed the first color photograph published as the cover of Vogue.
In 1937, when Steichen left Conde Nast, his realistic, independent and striking style had launched an era in fashion photography. In a career that spanned seventy-seven years, Steichen became the country’s most celebrated and highest-priced photographer, a genius able to transform his craft into a legitimate art form. Steichen more than any other individual is responsible for the public acceptance and high standing photography has in American culture.In 1938, Steichen closed his studio and moved to a farm he had bought in West Redding, Connecticut earlier in 1929. He worked with plants, specifically delphiniums, which he cross breeded, and achieved renown in bonay circles. He also created a new type of Oriental poppy.
In 1943, during World War II, he was commissioned as a lieutenant commander in the Navy to photograph the war at sea. He curated the photo shows "Road to Victory" and "Power in the Pacific" and supervised the film The Fighting Lady. He returned to New York in 1946 and in 1947 was hired as director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art. He remained there for the next 15 years.
Edward Steichen considered the 1955 "Family of Man" show the culmination of his career. It included every important photographer of the midcentury and is still discussed more than 40 years later. In 1961, The Museum of Modern Art honored Steichen with a 300-print one-man-show, selected from more than 30,000 negatives. In 1962, Steichen retired, but never stopped working. Edward Steichen died at age ninety-three in West Redding, Connecticut on March 25, 1973.
