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| The Terminal, 1892 Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864–1946) Photogravure; 4 3/4 x 6 5/16 in. (12.1 x 16 cm) |
Alfred Stieglitz took this picture using a small 4 x 5 camera, an instrument
not considered at the time to be worthy of artistic photography. Unlike
the unwieldy 8 x 10 view camera (which required a tripod), this camera
gave Stieglitz greater freedom and mobility to roam the city and respond
quickly to the ever-changing street life around him.
The Terminal
predicts by over a decade the radical transformation of the medium from
painterly prints of rarified subjects to what the critic Sadakichi
Hartmann dubbed "straight photography." This new photography would take
as its subject matter the quotidian aspects of modern urban life, using
only techniques that are unique to the medium. At the same time, in this
and other photographs he made around the turn of the century, Stieglitz
used natural elements such as smoke, rain, and snow to soften and unify
the image into a pictorially pleasing synthesis.
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