Customer Reviews

Edward Steichen : The Early Years

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This is an excellent photography book. It highlights the early career of this true master of the medium. Steichen's work rivals his contemporaries Steiglitz and Strand.A must have for any serious collector of photography monographs.

Too much of contemporary photography is either clichéd or uninspired, and worse, too many people with digital cameras think they're in the same class as the masters of photography. Photography is more than just snapping away. When done right, photography is art...the product of previsualization and postvisualization (to borrow a couple of terms from other photographers). This book is partly a biography of Steichen and partly an exceptionally well printed collection of his pictorialist (painterly) photographs. My advice to would-be fine-art photographers is to study the work of Steichen and other masters of photography, as well as fine art in general. They understood lighting and composition, and their works are waiting for you to absorb them. BTW, contemporary photographyer Joyce Tenneson also captures the mood and tone of Steichen's work.

While he may be better know for his later work, Edward Steichen was one of the greatest Pictorialists around during his early years. This book contains an excellent selection of his early work. If you like this period in photography, it's one of the best books you can buy. The work is breathtaking.