These self-portraits, made over a period of 27 years, exemplify the evolution of Steichen’s style and intentions from his time as a member of the Photo-Secession to his work as a leading commercial photographer.

In the earliest image, he holds a palette, modeling the belief that the success of photography as art could only be achieved through painterly handicraft and mastery. This notion is further attested to by visible brushstrokes in the print.

The next portrait, made around 1917, on the eve of Steichen’s participation in the war, shows a dramatic shift toward directness and clarity—the palette has been exchanged for a studio view camera.

In the third portrait, created during his tenure at Condé Nast, Steichen presents himself as an entrepreneurial observer. This image was later included as the only self-portrait in a Vanity Fair article that featured images of famous photographers taken by their colleagues.

Figure 1. Edward J. Steichen (American, born Luxembourg, 1879–1973). Self-Portrait with Brush and Palette, 1902. Gum bichromate print; 26.7 x 20 cm. Inscribed recto, lower left, in graphite: “Steichen / MXIIIVII”; verso unchecked. Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949.823. © 2015 The Estate of Edward Steichen/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Figure 2. Edward J. Steichen (American, born Luxembourg, 1879–1973). Self-Portrait with Camera, c. 1917. Platinum print; 25 x 19.8 cm (image); 33.8 x 29.2 cm (paper). Restricted gifts of Brenda and Earl Shapiro and the Smart Family Foundation; Laura T. Magnuson Acquisition, Comer Foundation, the Mary and Leigh Block Endowment funds; restricted gifts of Sidney and Sondra Berman Epstein, Karen and Jim Frank, Marian Pawlick; Ethel T. Scarborough, Hugh Leander and Mary Trumbull Adams Memorial Endowment, Betty Bell Spooner funds; restricted gifts of Vicki and Thomas Horwich, Robin and Sandy Stuart; Samuel A. Marx Purchase Fund for Major Acquisitions, S. DeWitt Clough, Photographic Society, Irving and June Seaman Endowment, Morris L. Parker funds, 2008.243. © 2015 The Estate of Edward Steichen/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Figure 3. Edward J. Steichen (American, born Luxembourg, 1879–1973). Self-Portrait, c. 1929. Gelatin silver print, probably printed by an assistant; 25.3 x 20.3 cm. The Mary and Leigh Block Endowment Fund, 1996.411. © 2015 The Estate of Edward Steichen/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Steichen began his artistic career at the age of 16, working as a design apprentice in a Milwaukee lithographic firm, where he created photographs that were used as models for illustrated advertisements, such as in the image below. Later he recalled that his “first real effort in photography was to make photographs that were useful,” an approach to which he would return later in his career.[1]

From Munsey’s Magazine, November 1898.

 
In 1900 Steichen left Milwaukee and his job at a lithographic firm to pursue the artist’s life in Paris, where he befriended the sculptor Auguste Rodin, among other renowned figures, and participated in photography salons. To the right is his portrait of Rodin, a composite image that portrays the sculptor between two of his works. Steichen used two negatives to create this image—working in the darkroom to combine the silhouette of Rodin in front of his Monument to Victor Hugo with another, separate exposure of Le Penseur.

Steichen returned to the U.S. in 1902 and opened a portrait studio in New York. By then he was an aspiring painter and an accomplished photographer known for atmospheric photographs in the Pictorialist style—an aesthetic that valued retouching and evident handicraft and that aimed to distinguish fine-art photographers from ordinary professionals and hobbyists. He soon became the protégé of Alfred Stieglitz, a pioneering photographer and leading champion of American photography as an equal among the modern fine arts. Together, they opened the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, later known simply as 291, which first presented Picasso, Brâncusi, and a range of progressive photographers to the American public.

The two photographs titled Midnight Lake George are reverse images of each other. They show Steichen’s masterly use of a photographic process to achieve “painterly” effects. Gum bichromate emulsions have a short tonal range, meaning they cannot register vivid highlights and detailed shadow areas at the same time. Therefore, Steichen likely brightened the moon by brushing away some of the pigment during development, when the emulsion was still wet and malleable.

Also of note is the almost-vibratory appearance of the tree trunk and leaves. Gum printing is an additive process: photographers spread one layer of emulsion upon another to deepen the tone. Each time the paper is exposed, the negative must be lined up with the previously printed image, a practice known as “registering the negative.” The slight blurring suggests that Steichen did not register the negative with precision. Whether made in error or by design, effects like this emphasize the handcrafted nature of these photographs, an aspect that would have been important to the Pictorialists.

To learn more about Pictorialism and the related Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th century, click here to explore the Art Institute’s 2010 exhibition Apostles of Beauty: Arts and Crafts from Britain to Chicago.

Figure 1. Edward J. Steichen (American, born Luxembourg, 1879–1973). Rodin, Le Penseur, 1902. Gum bichromate print; 26.2 x 32.6 cm (image/paper/mount). Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949.825. © 2015 The Estate of Edward Steichen/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Figure 2. Edward J. Steichen (American, born Luxembourg, 1879–1973). Midnight Lake George, 1904. Gum bichromate over platinum print; 39.2 x 50.6 cm. Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949.829. © 2015 The Estate of Edward Steichen/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Figure 3. Edward J. Steichen (American, born Luxembourg, 1879–1973). Midnight Lake George, 1904. Gum bichromate over platinum print; 39.2 x 50.6 cm. Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949.830. © 2015 The Estate of Edward Steichen/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

[1] Edward Steichen, A Life in Photography (Doubleday, 1963), chapter 1, n.p.

In 1906, seeking a change, Steichen moved back to France with his young family in tow, this time to the countryside outside Paris, where he immersed himself in European modern art. This gum bichromate print by fellow Photo-Secessionist Gertrude Käsebier shows Steichen and his friends, as Käsebier or perhaps her daughter Hermine captioned the original negative, “posed in the spirit of the French Impressionists” in Voulangis, the town where Steichen rented a villa.[1] This idyll ended in 1914 when, under the threat of advancing German troops, Steichen and his family fled back to the United States.

Figure 1. Gertrude Käsebier (American, 1852–1934). Serbonne, 1901. Gum bichromate print; 24.5 x 18.7 cm (image/paper). Julien Levy Collection, gift of Jean and Julien Levy, 1978.1075.

[1] Gertrude Käsebier. Edward Steichen, Frances Delehanty, Charlotte Smith (Paddock), and Hermine Käsebier (Turner) at Voulangis, France, posed in the spirit of the French Impressionists, 1901. Glass negative; 8 x 10 in. The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

The First World War, sometimes called the first “modern” war, was marked by groundbreaking advances in technology, including photography. Though Steichen intended to be “a photographic reporter, as Mathew Brady had been in the Civil War,” he quickly abandoned this romantic notion to help implement one of the newest weapons of war—aerial photography.[1] Taking images from airplanes made it possible not only to observe a wide swath of the battlefield, but also to track daily changes on the front lines.

The French and British militaries had made great advances with this technology for intelligence purposes, yet the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) had no established program. Steichen was assigned to the newly formed Photographic Section, led by Major James Barnes, and together they oversaw the training and outfitting of aerial-photography and surveillance units that would prove their usefulness over the course of the war. Steichen also worked to standardize print sizes, materials, cameras, and plates across the various national armies in order to simplify the cooperation between the Allied forces.

Photographic Section, Air Service, AEF. Major Steichen and Base Photo Section at Headquarters, Air Service, Paris, France, c. 1918. Photo courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

 
[1] Edward Steichen, A Life in Photography (Doubleday, 1963), chap. 5, n.p.

In the AEF Steichen presided over training programs, darkroom operations, print distribution, and supply channels—information delivery operations that required maximum clarity and detail as well as efficiency of production. Although he likely participated in several test flights, and had learned to fly before the war, there is no evidence that Steichen took operational photographs himself during the war.

While on military duty, Steichen helped adapt aerial photography for intelligence purposes, implementing surveillance programs that had a lasting impact on modern warfare. He later reflected:

The wartime problem of making sharp, clear pictures from a vibrating, speeding airplane ten to twenty thousand feet in the air had brought me a new kind of technical interest in photography. . . . Now I wanted to know all that could be expected from photography.[1]

Steichen began to value photography’s capacity to transmit and encode information, and he soon proved himself a savvy collaborator and producer rather than a solitary auteur—new roles that enabled his subsequent groundbreaking career in magazine and advertising photography.

Following the armistice on November 11, 1918, Steichen, by then promoted to major, remained in France to direct the extensive documentation of significant battle sites. He emerged from the war demonstrating not only a greater appreciation for the “striking pictorial effects” of aerial photographs but also celebrating the camera’s capacity to convey “neither opinions nor prejudice, but indisputable facts.”[2]

In the numerous reports he authored Steichen emphasized his respect for the photograph as a picture of codes and persuasion, a concept he would later apply to mass-media images.

Figure 1. Unknown photographer. Captain Edward Steichen and Camera, Serving with the American Expeditionary Forces in France, 1918. Helga Sandburg Crile Collection.

[1] Edward Steichen, A Life in Photography (Doubleday, 1963), chap. 5, n.p.

[2] Edward Steichen, “American Aerial Photography at the Front,” The Camera: The Magazine for Photographers (July 1919), p. 359, 366.

83 gelatin silver prints
Gift of William Kistler, 1977.678–760

Plate titles are based on Steichen’s own written captions of the photographs. More detailed inscription information and research on the photographs can be found by clicking on the album pages. For a complete list of the album plates, click here.

The map below shows the sites featured in the album, places Steichen was stationed while serving in the AEF, and the shifting Western Front during the last months of the war.

Click to enlarge the map

83 gelatin silver prints
Gift of William Kistler, 1977.678–760

Plate 2. Untitled [Vauquois]

Plate 3. Ruins of Apremont (St. Mihiel Sector)

Plate 4. East of Avocourt (Argonne)

Plate 5. Vertical photograph, Nomeny

Plate 6. German Frontline Trenches (St. Mihiel Sector)

Plate 7. In Château Thierry Sector

Plate 8. U.S. bombing airplane

Plate 9. U.S. bombing airplane

Plate 10. Ruins of Forges (Argonne)

Plate 11. Moulins-lès-Metz

Plate 12. Enlargement of preceding plate

Plate 13. Fismes (Château Thierry Sector), oblique photo

Plate 14. Fismes, vertical photos [Château Thierry Sector]

Plate 15. Camps des Romains (St. Mihiel)

Plate 16. Fort Alvensleben (near Metz)

Plate 17. Mine Craters Combres Hill

Plate 18. St. Mihiel (winter)

Plate 19. Untitled

Plate 20. Sedan

Plate 21. Sedan

Plate 22. Set of consecutive photographs [Germany]

Plate 23. Same as preceding plate [Germany]

Plate 24. A photographic map, forest of Apremont [St. Mihiel Sector]

Plate 25. Montsec [St. Mihiel Sector]

Plate 26. Ruins of Malancourt (Argonne Sector)

Plate 27. Concrete landing platform, Puxieux

Plate 28. Ruins of Montfaucon (Argonne Sector)

Plate 29. Montfaucon [Argonne Sector]

Plate 30. Montfaucon (winter) [Argonne Sector]

Plate 31. Bouresches wood (Château Thierry Sector)

Plate 32. Untitled [Vaux]

Plate 33. Vaux before American attack

Plate 34. Untitled [Vaux]

Plate 35. Vaux after German retreat

Plate 36. Château Thierry

Plate 37. Vauquois mine Craters (Argonne Sector)

Plate 38. Untitled [Montmedy]

Plate 39. Untitled [Montmedy]

Plate 40. Bomb dropped from airplane

Plate 41. Incendiary bombs, exploding antiaircraft shells

Plate 42. Verdun

Plate 43. Verdun

Plate 44. Fort Vaux (near Verdun)

Plate 45. Fort Douaumont (near Verdun)

Plate 46. Untitled

Plate 47. American Observation Airplane

Plate 48. French Pursuit or Combat Plane

Plate 49. Untitled [Otho Cushing drawing]

Plate 50. Frontline trenches (Apremont)

Plate 51. Interpretation of preceding picture [Apremont]

Plate 52. Gercourt-et-Drillancourt (Argonne)

Plate 53. Photography from 20,000 ft.

Plate 54. Enlarged detail of preceding plate

Plate 55. Pagny rail head

Plate 56. Captured enemy photograph, Colombey-les-Belles

Plate 57. German photograph, Seicheprey

Plate 58. Stages of a new German airdrome [Giraumont]

Plate 59. Untitled [Mars-la-Tour]

Plate 60. Progressive destruction of a farm

Plate 61. Enemy gun position

Plate 62. Same position as preceding

Plate 63. Cathedral at Tours

Plate 64. Map of Tours

Plate 65. Untitled [Ourches]

Plate 66. Tours Aviation School

Plate 67. American Embarkation Camp, Bordeaux

Plate 68. Untitled [Souge]

Plate 69. U.S. Motor overhaul park, Dijon

Plate 70. Untitled [Souge]

Plate 71. Untitled [Saint-Jean-de-Monts]

Plate 72. Untitled [Brest]

Plate 73. Untitled [Brest]

Plate 74. 10,000 Beds [Souge]

Plate 75. Untitled [Port of Bordeaux]

Plate 76. Untitled [Meucon]

Plate 77. American advance supply depot, Dijon

Plate 78. Large Supply Center near Tours

Plate 79. Untitled [General John J. Pershing]

Plate 80. Untitled [Fort Alexander, Koblenz]

Plate 81. Untitled [Burg Maus on Rhine]

Plate 82. Untitled [Marksburg Castle]

Plate 83. Untitled [Niederspay]

Plate 84. The Rhine

The album in the Art Institute’s collection was assembled by Steichen in 1919 from prints he kept following his military discharge. Many such pictures entered public and private collections and in some cases were assembled into albums that chronicled aerial photography during the war. Steichen’s pride in his work for the AEF is made clear in this unique compilation, which he personally captioned and dedicated to a member of a prominent family of art patrons.

Lillie R. Seney Robinson, to whom Steichen dedicated the album, was the daughter of George I. Seney—a prominent banker, philanthropist, and art collector based in New York. Robinson’s sister, Kate Seney Simpson, and her husband, John Woodruff Simpson, were likewise prominent art patrons and major supporters of the artist Auguste Rodin, with whom Steichen had a close friendship. Some have speculated that Steichen introduced them to Rodin, as it is known that they all visited the artist’s studio together as early as 1901, when Steichen was living in France. Kate Simpson commissioned a bust from Rodin, which today is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. The photographer corresponded with the family throughout the war and likely encountered them at Rodin’s funeral, shortly after his arrival on French shores in November 1917.

Kate Seney Simpson posing for Rodin in his studio, 1902. Photograph by Ouida Grant. Archives of the Museé Rodin. Published in Ruth Butler, Rodin: The Shape of Genius, 1996, p. 412.

 
The album was on view in its entirety for the first time in the exhibition Sharp, Clear Pictures: Edward Steichen’s World War I and Condé Nast Years, at the Art Institute of Chicago June 28, 2014 through September 28, 2014.

Figure 1. Cover of untitled album of World War I photographs assembled by Edward Steichen in 1919. Gift of William Kistler, 1977.678–760.

Figure 2. Inscription on the front inside cover of the album.

Gelatin silver print
Gift of William Kistler, 1977.678

Throughout his career, Steichen remained his own greatest promoter. His war years were no exception, as he took great pride in the technical and leadership skills he brought as an experienced photographer. In a report written at the end of the war, referring to himself in the third person, he boastfully wrote:

Captain, now Major, Steichen during those critical days was handling the work of two or more men. . . . [He] covered all the zone of activities at the front, organizing, advising, and coordinating matters of policy, technique, supply, and administration. Fortunately for the Photographic Section this officer was a photographer of twenty years experience and international reputation before the war and had been attached to the Section from its conception in Washington in August 1917.[1]

Printed recto, on album page, lower right, in black ink: “Photographic Section. / Air Service. American Expeditionary Forces.”; inscribed recto, on album page, lower right, in blue ink: “2”; inscribed verso, on album page, center, sideways, in graphite: “Vauquois”

 
[1] Edward Steichen, “History of the Headquarters Office, Photographic Section, Air Service, U.S.A.,” in Gorrell’s History of the American Expeditionary Forces Air Service, 1917–1919, series G, vol. 1, compiled by Colonel Edgar S. Gorrell (War Department, American Expeditionary Forces, 1918–19, reprinted by National Archives and Record Service, 1974), p. 3–4.