Camera Notes was the most significant American photographic periodical of its time. Published quarterly by the Camera Club of New York and edited by Alfred Stieglitz, the fountainhead of American art photography, it represented a critical phase in the campaign to legitimize the photo image as an artistic pursuit. Throughout most of its short, six-year life the publication included thoughtful articles on photography as fine art, as well as hundreds of halftone images and, most importantly, nearly 100 stunning, high-quality photogravures.

Printed largely by New York's Photochrome Engraving Company, where Stieglitz himself had previously worked, the gravures are strong in tone, unlike the delicate printing style popularized by P. H. Emerson in England. While Stieglitz drew heavily from work by members of the camera club (including himself), he also featured images by other Americans, like F. Holland Day and Clarence H. White, and Europeans such as J. Craig Annan and Robert Demachy. Many of the images in Camera Notes also appeared later in Camera Work.