Steichen's Legacy (Hardcover)

by Joanna Steichen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Edward Steichen was a visionary determined to show that photography was an art form as well as a craft, which explains the painterly style characterizing his early images. His portraits resonate with echoes of Whistler and Sargent; like Whistler, he used terms such as pastorale and nocturne as titles for his landscapes to suggest their affinity with music. His experiments with color images of flowers, dating as early as 1907, look back to the paintings of Fantin-Latour yet anticipate Robert Mapplethorpe. He explored photography's potential to immortalize the chance play of shadows on flat surfaces and the unexpected beauty of decayed plants. Beyond his artistic eye, Steichen's sensitivity and daring were evident in the international photographic exhibition The Family of Man that he organized for the Museum of Modern Art in 1955. The text of Steichen's Legacy is written by the photographer's widow, Joanna, who met Steichen when he was 80 and she was 28. Though her intensely personal recollections are a unique window on Steichen's life and an excellent source of anecdote, they form an uneasy mix of art history and biography--the loving memories of one so intimate with Steichen do not form the most solid base for analyzing his work. Her choice of images, however, and the book's rich visual presentation make it a magnificent tribute to one of photography's great interpreters and innovators. His legacy is well served by the 300 high-quality duotones, tritones, and full-color images that illustrate this substantial volume, printed in Italy on fine art paper and a tour de force of book production. --John Stevenson

From Publishers Weekly
If one has encountered the ubiquitous black and white posters of New York's severe, pre-WWII cityscape, one has probably encountered modernist photographic pioneer Edward Steichen. But the pictures collected here present a much richer Steichen (1879-1973) than the common perception of a purist and aesthete. Joanna Steichen, the photographer's third wife, has culled these 308 b&w and color photos by considering "visual theme and emotional communication over chronology and initial function," highlighting his unabashed sense of grandeur and technical precision. The advertisements Steichen did for the J. Walter Thompson agencyDincluding a remarkable shot of a woman applying lipstick in an angled mirror while her swell looks on and smokesDand his portraits of presidents from Taft and Teddy Roosevelt to FDR put the cityscapes, landscapes and still lifes (like Matches and Match Boxes) in a rich, capital-drenched context that's much more clear here than in previous collections. The excellent page-sized reproductions are augmented by Joanna Steichen's very detailed, memoirish ("I was twenty-six, tall, broad shouldered, slim but sturdy, well-groomed down to my white cotton gloves.... It was July 20th, 1959") account of Steichen's life and career. The text can be heavy-handed, and there is a lot of it, but for the most part the writing is performed with care for, and preservation of, Steichen's work first and foremost. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 408 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (September 26, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679450769
• ISBN-13: 978-0679450764
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 10 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #299,851 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Well Reproduced Images and Personal Insights, November 30, 2000

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

This book belongs in the home of everyone who loves great photography.

" . . . [S]eeing led to understanding and understanding could transform suspicion, hatred and violence into tolerance, peace and love." This was Steichen's vision for his oeuvre, as reported by his widow, Joanna, in this rewarding retrospective and series of biographical essays. In keeping with that vision, Ms. Steichen has developed this wonderful volume in the following way: "I want the reader to have optimal opportunity to experience the images simply as images." In that, she was remarkably successful. She graciously acknowledges the aid of George Tice, the last of those who printed for Steichen, in preparing the volume.

Each page is gorgeously reproduced in superb size, on great paper, and with thoughtful care concerning the sharpness, lack of sharpness, or contrast required to express Steichen's intent for each image.

Before going further, let me mention that Steichen's work does include female nudity. There are few of these images, and only one is potentially challenging for the viewer. If such things bother you, skip that section of the book called "the Body" or skip this volume.

If you are not familiar with Steichen's personal life, you should know that he and his wife first met when he was 80 and she was 28, when Carl Sandburg, Steichen's brother-in-law, introduced them. They soon fell in love and married. Steichen then drafted her to be his personal assistant, and she became very familiar with his work and collaborators. When he died, he left his negatives to her for use and disposition, and directed that she also decide who was to get his prints. From seeing the care in selecting images and the quality of their reproduction in this volume, he chose well in leaving his artistic legacy to her.

The intent of her selection process was to provide an overview of his life's work, so you get a combination of the famous and the seldom-seen here. These are grouped around themes as follows: Next of Kin (his family); of Woods and Water (landscapes), Reverie (foggy romantic images); Powerful People; Challenging Women; Style; the Body; Artists; Early Color Process; Writers; on the Road; Masters of Music; New York City; Glamour; Scale and Symbol; Improvisation; Forces of Nature; On Stage; and Flowers.

The essays about these sections contain personal anecdotes that are more revealing about his life than his work. But for those who do not know his technique, there is an overview to explain his interests and methods. For example, the connections to painting, abstraction, and setting a mood are well established. The many luminescent images against a dark background, shaded by fuzziness, are explained by his experience with mist on the lens later aided by deliberate use of saliva and indirect lighting.

My favorites of the images here include:

With Studio Camera (self-portrait), 1917

With Photographic Paraphernalia (self-portrait), 1929

Theodore Roosevelt, The White House, 1908

Walter Winchell, New York, 1929

The Cat -- Gloria Swanson, 1924

Mary Steichen, 1917

Shoes, 1927

Douglass Lighters, 1928

Thumbtacks, 1926-1927

Nude Torso, c. 1934

Dana's Hands and Grasses, Long Island, New York, 1923

The First Cast of Brancusi's "Bird in Space", c. 1925

Carl Sandburg, Umpawaug Farm, 1939

Irving Berlin, 1932

George Gershin, 1927

Martha Graham (4), New York, 1931

Noel Coward, New York, 1932

Leslie Howard, 1933

Joan Crawford, 1932

Spiral Shell, France, c. 1921

Ed Wynn, New York, 1930

Katherine Hepburn, 1933

Having seen all of these images, I came away most impressed with those rare occasions when personal character, abstraction, and shadows could be combined into the same image. The results are simply breathtaking.

Steichen has significance in three ways for the modern viewer. He pioneered in making photography an "art" rather than pure representation. These pioneering efforts established many of the major methods used by photographers since. Second, he was an important curator of photography, and he championed many careers. Third, he was remarkably talented in capturing personality, much like the great portrait painters.

The essays add a fourth dimension to Steichen that is well worth our attention. What is it like to be an acknowledged genius in your field? What are the challenges? What are the pitfalls?

"He was full of contradictions." "Meeting the daily needs of individuals was not his concern." "His capacity for connecting truly and intensely operated on a grander scale." In this way, Steichen reminds one of many great people who withdraw into their work. Compared to Einstein, his withdrawal was not nearly as complete. Compared to Picasso, he did not actually torment his family deliberately. But, it is clear that his career came before all else.

"Steichen had a conscience and room for compasssion, but he also had an urgent, lifelong mandate for accomplishment." He comes across as the archetype of the modern self-absorbed striver, and his example bears witnessing. After a rough session in which the author suffered tough treatment from her husband, friends often took her aside to reassure her that everyone eventually found their lives enriched by knowing Steichen. Ms. Steichen echoes that advice in this volume also. So ultimately, the picture you get is of someone where the heart ultimately overcame the obsession with work and self-expression, but not without creating pain for others along the way.

After you finish enjoying this delightful group of great images, I suggest that you think about your own life. Where may you have an obsession that causes pain to those around you? How can you change that approach to create more joy and happiness instead, for others and for yourself? If you are not sure, perhaps the outstanding book, Relationship Rescue, and The Relationship Rescue Workbook can help you.

Accomplish with all your heart!

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Steichen's Legacy - Photographs, 1895-1973, September 29, 2000

By	Thomas F. Connery (Birmingham, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This new book by Joanna Steichen is an excellent stand-alone reference on Edward Steichen's long career in photography. The quality of the reproduction is high and the book includes a good number of photographs that are seldom or never seen in the other books written on Steichen's career. The text is easy to read and does not contain "art gibberish" - a major positive point! Joanna Steichen's comments on her relationship with Edward are revealing and are of great interest to those who have studied Edward Steichen in some detail. There is some weakness in the text in regard to events early in the century. Questions about some of the stories concerning Edward Steichen remain unanswered (for example, the often told tale of the painting burning in France still has no specific date). So far as photo selection goes the book is excellent. My only real disappointment here was in the selection of autochromes. The autochrome shown on the dust jacket is spectacular but some of the others selected are fairly well known and, in my opinion, somewhat overrated. To its credit, the book includes color reproductions of some of Edward's 1920's work such as "Wheelbarrow with Flower Pots" and "Dana and the Apple". I highly recommend this book, even to those who already have an extensive collection of books on Edward Steichen.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Photography Lovers & Memoir Readers Everywhere!, November 12, 2000

By A Customer

This beautifully printed book is obviously a labor of love on all sides. With text by the widow of Edward Steichen, the book is unique in that it weaves together the extraordinary photographs of this great American master with an intriguing story which is more memoir than dull academic treatise. While Edward Steichen's beautifully reproduced photographs provide a feast for the eyes, Joanna Steichen tells his story and looks at their life together honestly, bringing to her text the heart and soul of a true writer. She discusses the groupings of photographs from her own experiences as the young wife of a much older, great man, and she shares her memories of their sometimes difficult marriage. Even more extraordinary is that all of this is so accessible to a general audience, which is generally not the case with most art books. What this reviewer finds particularly interesting is the way the book is laid out -- in chapters with titles like "Of Woods and Water," "Forces of Nature," and "Challenging Women," instead of by dull academic chronology or by technical photographic process. In sum, this is really two books -- an art book and a memoir -- in one, and although this may confuse professional reviewers in the national press it should not dissuade readers. Put it on your holiday list if you want to give a very special gift to a very special person. For photographers, of course, the book is a "must buy." Edward Steichen was a true American original who lived a long and exciting life to the fullest, and was a pioneer in his field. "Steichen's Legacy" will interest almost everyone.