One of the first known works by Stieglitz After The Rain, which depicts a scene in the Bavarian Alps, was taken in Mittenwald ,Germany when he was 22 years old in 1886. The first known exhibition of this photograph,with it’s title being Nach dem Regen-Schweiz, took place in Berlin in 1889. The image was additionally published as a plate photogravure in Sun & Shade in January, 1892.

Bits of Nature: Ten Photogravures of American Scenery, was issued late in 1893 by the publisher Joseph Knight of Boston. It was done with the cooperation of Ernest Edwards’ New York Photo-Gravure Company, which had previously published at least six of the ten plates in their monthly folio periodical Sun & Shade from 1892-93. Essentially an oblong quarto viewbook, it features ten superb, Japan-tissue photogravures by Edwards’ New York concern. Other than the title page, the volume, which retailed for $2.00, features no letterpress of any kind. The delicate tissue plates are each tack-glued under the corners to the center of each of the ten leaves. With the exception of the Stieglitz plate, all of the other photographs are believed to have been taken in New York State. These delicate and finely-printed examples of hand-pulled photogravures are representative of the type of artistic work being done in the United States in the very early 1890’s. [1]