Eugene’s comments regarding the production of his photogravures for Camera Work… I have determined to not permit any manual manipulation on the copperplate – and when the light spots and a few other mechanical faults are removed, the print ought to give one rather a favorable idea of what my stuff looks like. In February 1910 Stieglitz, after receiving the prints, informed Eugene that he was impressed by the printing quality. Eugene was also very satisfied not only with the result but also with the reactions in Munich’s art circles: Camera Work has caused the people to whom I have shown it intense enjoyment and I wish you could have heard what Director F. A. v. Kaulbach said about the number in which you have handed me down to future ages – s- “Einfach unerhort schon” [Simply outrageous] – was a remark which he simply kept repeating. To Eugene’s great satisfaction, fourteen of his students placed orders for the issue. [1]

The very boldness with which Eugene manipulated the negative by scratching and painting forced even those with strong sympathy for the purist line of thinking like White, Day and Stieglitz to admire Eugene’s particular touch…[he] created a new syntax for the photographic vocabulary, for no one before him had hand-worked negatives with such painterly intentions and a skill unsurpassed by his successors.[2]