The Alfred Stieglitz Collection
  • Recto of print
  • Photomicrograph showing print surface (scale bar is in millimeters)
  • Photomicrograph showing print surface (scale bar is in micrometers)
  • A photogravure reproduction of this work in Camera Work

James Craig Annan (Scottish, 1864–1946)

Bolney Backwater, c. 1908

Photogravure; 21.6 x 28.8 cm (image); 26.8 x 40.6 cm (paper)
Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949.669

 

J. Craig Annan was known for creating Pictorialist photogravures—combining the photographic detail captured by the lens with the painterly smears and smudges of the ink used in the printing process. Though Alfred Stieglitz would soon move away from supporting the Pictorial aesthetic Annan’s work embodied, Stieglitz liked Bolney Backwater well enough to not only reproduce it in Camera Work in October of 1910, but also include it in the International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography in Buffalo, New York just a month later.

 

Additional resources related to this object are to the right. Comprehensive material analysis is found in the Object Research PDF.

 

Related Glossary Pages

  • Artists

    J. Craig Annan

    James Craig Annan learned photography as a boy: his father, Thomas Annan, was a photographer read more

  • Processes

    Photogravure

    The earliest method of reproducing photographs in ink, photogravures peaked in popularity at the turn read more

  • Journals

    Camera Work

    Stieglitz had edited two previous publications—The American Amateur Photographer and Camera Notes—before deciding in 1902 read more

  • Themes

    Pictorialism

    The international movement known as Pictorialism represented both a photographic aesthetic and a set of read more

  • Themes

    Materials Research

    As part of the research related to this site, forty-four photographs from the Art Institute’s read more