Self Portrait Steichen, Edward  (American, 1879-1973)

Were it not a gum-print, this famouns Steichen self-portrait might be mistaken for that of an emotionally intense Romantic artist, with his head, hands, and palette brightly highlighted, and his face partially sunk in shade.[1] Posing with his painter’s pallet, Steichen further blurs the line between painting and photography suggesting that photography too is a fine art.

Reproduced / Exhibited

Doty, Robert M. Photo-secession: Photography As a Fine Art. N.Y: Eastman, 1960. p. 23.

Marien, Mary W. Photography: A Cultural History. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: SunSoft Press, 2002. fig. 4.22.

Pollack, P. The Picture History of Photography: From the Earliest Beginnings to the Present Day. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1998. p. 274

Sternberger, Paul S. Between Amateur and Aesthete: The Legitimization of Photography As Art in America, 1880-1900. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2001 p. 51

References

[1] Marien, Mary W. Photography: A Cultural History. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: SunSoft Press, 2002