Brief introduction of edward steichen

World-renowned photographer, known as the most outstanding portrait photographer and the father of fashion photography in the 20th century. Edward steichen 1879 was born in Luxemburg, 1973 died. I went to America with my parents when I was two years old. /kloc-started to pursue and create photography at the age of 0/6. In his 94-year life journey, his photography career has been 78 years, and he is known as an American photographer and master. Some people say that his life shows the development history of photography in the 20th century. This is because the rich creative process of Steichen's life covers a wide and profound range. It not only includes many aspects, such as portraits, still life, scenery, social news, life, advertisements, highlights and so on. And in his creation, he combines the strengths of painters, pure photographers, documentary writers and even abstract composers. In Steichen's own words: "Every ten years, people should push themselves into a new realm!"

Chinese name: edward steichen.

Nationality: USA

Place of birth: Luxembourg

Date of birth: 1879

Date of death: 1973

Occupation: photographer

Major achievements: Medal of Freedom

Photographic giant

Master photographer

Father of fashion photography

Representative work: Moonlight in the Pond.

one's early years

Edward steichen1879 was born in Luxemburg and immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of two. /kloc-entered milwaukee art company at the age of 0/5 and began a four-year apprenticeship in printing and plate making. There, he got a lot of painting training and started artistic creation. At that time, he was determined to be a top painter. However, Steichen happened to be next to a photographic equipment store. Driven by curiosity, he frequented there after work and finally bought the first second-hand Kodak camera in his life.

At first, Steichen's photography skills were not excellent. At one time, he took 50 photos of his family, only one was developed in the end, and the rest failed for various reasons. His father blamed him for his poor skills. Steichen was so disappointed with himself that he almost decided to give up taking pictures, but his mother praised the only remaining photo as excellent and more meaningful than the 49 failed photos. Perhaps it was the mother's affirmation that convinced Steichen to continue taking pictures. He continued to study photography technology and soon raised funds with several friends who also loved photography. He rented a room in an office building in Milwaukee as their studio and named his organization Milwaukee Art Students Union.

Four years later, Steichen met the most important person in his career in new york-AlfredStieglitz, known as the "father of modern photography". This photographer, who is famous for his unsmiling, actually praised Steichen's works and spent five yuan on three of his works. This accidental meeting greatly increased Steichen's confidence and laid the foundation for their future cooperation. Two years later, Stie Gerriets founded the famous CameraWork magazine, and he invited Stecken to design the logo for the magazine. Later, Steichen's works were often seen in this magazine. Out of their love for art, they jointly founded a gallery called "Separatist Photography" at 1905 * * (because the gallery address is 29 1, the gallery is also called 29 1). This gallery not only exhibited the best photographic works at that time, but also brought the works of European modernist painters Cezanne, Picasso and Matisse to the United States for exhibition from time to time.

Because of his love for pure art, Steichen's early photography has a style of painting, which is what later generations call painting photography (also called photo photography). His works strive for the composition and artistic conception of painting. 1904, he filmed the famous Moonlight Land. In the work, the bright moon is exposed from the cracks in the Woods, and the moonlight shines in the pond at night, which is quite impressionist. This masterpiece in the history of photography was finally sold at Sotheby's new york auction in 2006 for $2.925 million, and it is still among the most expensive photographic works in history.

The life of the character

Steichen experienced two world wars. During the First World War, he served as an aerial photographer, which laid the foundation for later aerial photography. According to the poet Sandberg, when World War II started, Steichen was 63 years old, but he still volunteered to join the army. He led more than 4000 military photographers on the Pacific front. After World War II, he became the director of the photography department of new york Museum of Modern Art with his rich photographic experience and achievements. /kloc-in 0/5, he held nearly 50 influential exhibitions for photographers in the United States and around the world. 1955, the world-famous photography exhibition "Human Family" was held in Steichen. He selected 503 photos of 273 male and female photographers from about 2 million photos collected around the world for exhibition and toured nearly 40 countries and regions around the world. Steichen participated in two world wars, so he held three large-scale photography exhibitions with the theme of war. At the same time, he also reflected the beautiful side of life through photos, showing that people in every country are equally kind. "Human Family" is centered on "human beings" and shows how human beings live in the world family, from the birth, growth, maturity, aging and even death of babies. Photos include the lives of people of different nationalities and nationalities, with the aim of enhancing mutual understanding and understanding of mankind. The "Human Family" photography exhibition not only spread Steichen's idea that all people are created equal, but also proved that photography is the most popular and understandable Esperanto and the most authentic art.

1963 Former US President Kennedy awarded Steichen the Medal of Freedom, praising his achievements and contributions in photography all his life.

The attached photo is the most precious in the world at present, and Sotheby's sold it for 2.928 million dollars.

biography

From 65438 to 0923, Steichen became the director of photography department of fashion magazine, and often took fashion photos for his sister magazine Vanity Fair, thus establishing the fashion photography style of Steichen's era. 1960, in order to celebrate Steichen's 8 1 birthday, the American photographic yearbook edited and published an album reflecting his life footprint. 1973, Steichen died at the age of 94. He is a symbol of American photography.

Influenced by impressionist photography in his early days, Steichen was quite proficient in soft-focus photography and created many famous impressionist photos. After World War I, Stiglitz tried his best to correct the expression of photography imitating painting, and clearly pointed out that photography should develop according to his own requirements. Stiglitz's view of photography inspired and influenced Steichen, making Steichen firmly change from impressionist photography to pure photography. Steichen is an outstanding organization leader. /kloc-in 0/5, he was the director of new york Museum of Modern Art, and organized nearly 50 exhibitions, among which Human Family, Ancient and Modern Masterpieces and America were all large-scale film exhibitions organized by him.

1945, he made a documentary about the Pacific naval battle-the female fighter, which won an Oscar. He also became the first photography director of new york Museum of Modern Art..

In 1950s, Steichen, as the director of photography department of new york Museum of Contemporary Art, successfully planned and organized the film "Human Family" to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of new york Museum of Contemporary Art. It took Steichen two years to select 500 works by 273 authors from 68 countries from 2 million manuscripts collected around the world and edit them into books, which became "narrative poems" in the world photography circle. From 1955, the film festival "Human Family" toured all over the world, including the Soviet Union, and Steichen mechanical pencil wrote beautiful poems for the exhibition. Regrettably, such an exhibition with universal educational significance was not accepted by China that year. The Human Family has a wide range of contents and rich themes, including human life and death, love, study, work and creation, praising human wisdom and civilization and exposing the disaster and cruelty of war. With its rich coverage, its influence fully reflects human society, and through the humanitarian view of human fraternity and equality, it questions nationality, regionality and class nature, thus becoming an excellent film festival that transcends nationalities and national boundaries and affects hundreds of millions of people. The Human Family is the greatest spiritual wealth that Steichen left for himself and future generations in the field of photography.

1959, in order to make the classical works of all countries in the world spread to future generations, Steichen held a film exhibition of "masterpieces of ancient and modern times", including silver photos, which caused great repercussions. 196 1 year, Steichen planned and organized a film screening called "America", sponsored by the American Cities Alliance, with a budget of more than 20,000 US dollars. The photos in the film festival describe the rise and development of various races, structures and cultures in the United States.

representative works

Steichen's Moonlight in the Pond

February 2006 14 Sotheby's in new york $2,928,000.

There is no doubt that this photo itself is a delicate and beautiful handmade work. It is developed by the photographer himself, exposed in a dark room at least twice, and hand-painted with two or more photosensitive paints. Finally, a deep, exquisite night painting with blue-green light is obtained, which is regarded as a typical "transfer printing process" of photography in the west. The work itself is well preserved, with Steichen's signature on it.

These photos are from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and are being sold to raise money. So, by definition, this is a collection-level work.

This work is one of the only three printed versions known at present, each of which has its own distinctive features. One of them was held by new york Museum of Modern Art, where Steichen served as the director of photography department and summarized his photography career. The other one is still in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Although we can think that this work is one of three copies of the same negative, it is also a unique work, because Steichen used different printing techniques when making each work. (Because many businessmen in the West and China-including the introduction in the above article-are actively promoting the concept of limited edition, and because countless collectors who lack information have accepted this concept without thinking, it is necessary to point out here that none of these photos of Steichen are very formal "limited edition", and these works don't even have serial numbers. )

The reason why this photo was born is very pure. This is a gift from Steichen to Alfred Stieglitz, an important figure in the history of photography and art in the 20th century. Alfred later donated this photo together with other works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (thus giving birth to the world's first museum with creative photographic works). Before the donation, the photos were exhibited in new york Photo Separation Art Museum (usually referred to as 29 1 Art Museum) and reprinted shortly after the publication of the photos, which appeared in a large number of commentary articles at that time and became an important reference point of that era.

Therefore, this image has become a noteworthy work in the history of photography, especially one of the works that defined the photo photography movement. As a photography trend, especially in the United States, the greatest success of photo photography is to make the public accept that photography is a creative medium and an art form that should be as worthy of attention as visual media such as painting and sculpture. Many important figures in photography in the 20th century, including Edward Weston, ansel adams, imogen cunningham and Edward S. Curtis, all started their creative career from photo photography. Although it has been out of date for half a century, since 1970, photo photography has made a comeback.

photographic?exhibition

1955, Steichen hosted a large-scale photography group exhibition "Four Seas" (translated by en:thefamilyoffman), which won a lot of praise. The exhibition * * * has more than 500 works by different photographers, with people from different countries as the themes, describing their lives, love and death. En: CarlSandburg, Steichen's brother-in-law, published a series of TV plays for this exhibition and donated them to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg according to Steichen's wishes. At present, these 500 works are permanently preserved in the Luxemburg town of clervaux.