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About the Camera Work magazine (using a Wikipedia entry, retrieved on 26.01.2024)
The magazine 'Camera Work' was a quarterly magazine for photography. The independent artists' magazine was founded in 1903 by the American photographer and gallery owner Alfred STIEGLITZ as part of the Photo-Secession in New York and was distributed as the in-house magazine and exhibition catalog of his Gallery 291. It was published continuously until 1917 with a total of fifty issues and three special issues.
The book-shaped magazine was elaborately designed, partly by hand, and presented innovative works by important photographers and artists, paired with detailed photo reviews. Initially conceived as a mouthpiece for the pictorialists, 'Camera Work' developed within a decade into an important, often controversial medium of the European and US avant-garde. In addition to its photo-historical value, 'Camera Work' documents the transition from fin de siècle symbolism to 20th century modernism thanks to the essays, reviews and theoretical reflections written by numerous renowned authors.
Authors and photographers
Each issue contained detailed information about the works depicted, background reports and exhibition reviews. In addition to Alfred STIEGLITZ himself, well-known contributors included Charles Caffin, Robert DEMACHY, Sidney Allan (Sadakichi Hartmann), George Bernard Shaw and Edward STEICHEN.
The first issue of 'Camera Work' was dedicated to the early pictorialist Gertrude KÄSEBIER; she was followed by Edward STEICHEN, who regularly wrote art criticism. Later, monographs by Photo-Secessionists and leading photographers from Europe were added (Alvin Langdon COBURN, Frederick H. EVANS, Clarence H. WHITE, the Viennese photographer group Hugo HENNEBERG, Heinrich KÜHN and Hans WATZEK). A French edition was dedicated to Robert DEMACHY, René Le BÈGUE and Constant PUYO; a further edition presented Alice BOUGHTON, Annie W. BRIGMAN and Ema SPENCER.
The history of photography was also addressed in 'Camera Work', and Alfred STIEGLITZ had calotypes by David Octavius HILL and Robert ADAMSON and portrait photographs by Julia Margaret CAMERON reproduced - photographic pioneers who had already fallen into oblivion by this time. These were joined by essays and observations by art critics and members of the Photo-Secession, who wrote reports on the association's activities.Camera Work thus offered a thorough documentation of the art photography movement and at the same time a worthy representation of its protagonists.
Reception
Each issue of Camera Work was largely favorably reviewed by the British press. In 1924 Alfred STIEGLITZ was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's highest honor, the Progress Medal. "From Camera Work it is possible to trace the entire development of theory over fifteen years and the increasing influence of European models. Most of the pictures published here are by Edward STEICHEN (68), followed by Alfred STIEGLITZ, James Craig ANNAN, Alvin L. COBURN, Clarence H. WHITE, Eugene, De Meyer, Robert DEMACHY, Heinrich KÜHN, Hugo HENNEBERG, Hans WATZEK, Seeley, Frederick H. EVANS and others, all progressive photographers who attempted to understand the world in the style of the fine arts." (Frizot) Although the magazine inspired many photographers, for others, such as Ansel ADAMS, Walker EVANS or Eliot PORTER, it was an anachronism, as only Edward STEICHEN, Alfred STIEGLITZ and Paul STRAND come to mind among the wealth of pictorialist works.
About the photographers involved in 'Camera Work' with their works (a selection)
Alfred STIEGLITZ, Gertrude KÄSEBIER, Edward STEICHEN, Alvin Langdon COBURN, Frederick H. EVANS, Clarence H. WHITE, Hugo HENNEBERG, Heinrich KÜHN, Hans WATZEK, Robert DEMACHY, René Le BÈGUE, Constant PUYO, Alice BOUGHTON, Annie W. BRIGMAN, Ema SPENCER, David Octavius HILL, Robert ADAMSON, Julia Margaret CAMERON, Paul STRAND, James Craig ANNAN, Alvin Langdon COBURN, Clarence H. WHITE, Frederick H. EVANS, SEELEY, EUGENE, DE MEYER
Photo books about the photographers involved in 'Camera Work' and literature on 'Camera Work' as a whole (a selection)
'History of Photography. From 1839 to the Present' (1937, by Beaumont Newhall); 'Alfred Stieglitz: Camera Work" (1978, by Marianne Fulton Margolis); 'Stieglitz on Photography. His Selected Essays and Notes' (1999, by Richard Whelan and Sarah Greenough); 'The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs at the National Gallery of Art' (2002, by Sarah Greenough); 'Alfred Stieglitz Camera Work. The Complete Photographs 1903-1917' (2008, by Simone Philippi, Ute Kieseyer, Julia Krumhauer a.o.);