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Recto of print -
Recto of print with original mount -
Verso of original mount -
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 -
A photogravure reproduction of this work in Camera Work -
Exhibition view showing a print of the work in Beginnings and Landmarks at An American Place (1937) -
A later, gelatin silver print of this work
Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864–1946)
The Hand of Man, 1902
Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949.850
This photograph, taken from the back of a moving train, was published in the first issue of Camera Work, in January 1903. A note in the issue explained the image as conveying not the contrast between man and machine, but rather a link between art and the everyday: “The Hand of Man by Alfred Stieglitz, the last plate in this number, is an attempt to treat pictorially a subject which enters so much into our daily lives that we are apt to lose sight of the pictorial possibilities of the commonplace.”[1] Evidence suggests that Stieglitz reworked the photogravure plate in order to darken the top edge, making for a more even and pleasing composition.
An later print of this image also exists in the Alfred Stieglitz Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago (1949.703).
Additional resources related to this object are to the right. Comprehensive material analysis can be found in the Object Research PDF.
[1] “The Pictures in This Number,” Camera Work 1 (Jan. 1903), p. 63.