 LFRED STIEGLITZ HAS LONG BEEN RECOGNIZED as fine art photography's most passionate advocate. His dedication to the medium has made an indelible impact on the art world. As a photographer, collector and publisher, Stieglitz held impossibly high standards to quality of craftsmanship. It is no wonder that Stieglitz chose photogravure when printing his own photographs.
He believed that with sufficient imput from the photographer, with conscientious printers, and with high standards of quality applied at every stage, hand-pulled photogravures could at least equal the impact of a photographic print made in platinum or gum bichromate.
His satisfaction with the medium was without question when in 1897 he signed a limited deluxe edition of gravures from his Picturesque Bits of New York portfolio and sold them individually.
By the early 1900s, photogravures gained wide acceptance as original prints. Many of the photographers published in Camera Work signed their plates indicating their satisfaction, and a handful of photographers worked directly in photogravure when producing exhibition prints.
For the purposes of this site, we have indicated which impressions we believe qualify as originals. We judged these images on the details of their production including when they were made, by whom they were made, if they were made from the original negative and if the photographer has signed them.
For more information on photogravures as originals, please visit our texts section.
|
