Whether a watercolor
is inferior to an oil [painting], or whether a drawing, an etching,
or a photograph is not as important as either, is inconsequent.
To have to despise something in order to respect something else
is a sign of impotence.
Paul Strand, Camera Work, 1917
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Photography hasnt always been
considered an art. In early days, photographs were considered an advance
of science, not art. Cameras were machines, and everyone knew that machines
didnt make art; people made art. But when Alfred Stieglitz made
this picture he was leading a movement called Pictorialism, which promoted
the photograph as art, the same kind of art as a drawing or painting.
Stieglitz and other Pictorialists understood that a photograph was created
when the camera was used as a tool, like a paintbrush was a tool. And
they tried to show that they were a part of the art tradition by manipulating
their photos in the darkroom, using tricks and techniques that were evidence
of the human hand in the process.
Given that history, the title of this photo has two meanings. The steam
engine was a human invention that had huge impact not all of it
good on the landscape and on peoples lives. And this photograph
was made by the hand of man, no mistake about it. The soft-focus effects
and the romantic atmosphere were the results of handwork on the print
after the film came out of the camera.
There are other references to the world of art in this photograph. Stieglitz
was very involved in the modern art scene and had closely followed the
Impressionist movement in Europe. Impressionists were some of the first
artists to look to the city as a worthy subject for their paintings, and
it was a new city they looked at. Machines and all things modern in the
city were desirable subjects. At the same time, Impressionists represented
these modern scenes in stop-motion glimpses, with plenty of atmosphere.
European painters chose the steam engine as a subject and a symbol of
the modern city. Stieglitz would embrace the city as his subject too,
but he would use photography as his medium.
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