Alfred Stieglitz was an American art photographer, writer, curator and publisher in the late nineteenth century.http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=1851 Art photography historians believe that Stieglitz was the artist that finally gave photography credibility in the fine arts community.http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=1851 Alfred Stieglitz is known for being one of the first artists to establish art photography galleries and journals like Camera Notes and Camera Work.http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=1851 Also, he founded the Photo-Secessionist and Pictorialist art photography movements.http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=1851

Stieglitz is a notable figure in art photography history.http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=1851 Before his time, photography was only seen as a scientific discovery. It was valued for its mechanical importance but not as a fine art. However, Alfred Stieglitz set out to prove that a camera could be used as a tool to create works of art just like traditional mediums such as paint or clay. According to J. Paul Getty Museum, Stieglitz was an inspiration for sculptors, painters and photographers.http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=1851

On January 1, 1864, Alfred Stieglitz was born in Hoboken, New Jersey.http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stieglitz_a_timeline_flash.html His father, a German immigrant, took Stieglitz and the rest of his family to Europe in 1881.http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stieglitz_a_timeline_flash.html While there, Alfred Stieglitz studied mechanical engineering in Berlin, Germany.http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stieglitz_a_timeline_flash.html By 1883, he had developed a passion for photography and switched his major to photochemistry.http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stieglitz_a_timeline_flash.html In 1887, he won his first photography contest for a photo named A Good Joke.http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stieglitz_a_timeline_flash.html After returning to the United States in 1890, he began to make his first photographs of the New York City landscape in 1892.http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stieglitz_a_timeline_flash.html

Stieglitz was able to show the first retrospective of his art works in 1899 at the Camera Club.http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stieglitz_a_timeline_flash.html After founding Photo-Secession galleries in 1905, he went on to coordinate the International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography in 1910.http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stieglitz_a_timeline_flash.html Later in his life, he donated 1000 art pieces (by over 100 artists) to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1933.http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stieglitz_a_timeline_flash.html During the next year, he held his final exhibit at An American Place. Stieglitz died on July 13, 1946.http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stieglitz_a_timeline_flash.html

He began his photographic career as a Pictorialist.http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/stgp/hd_stgp.htm#thumbnails Pictorialism was the first art photography movement. It tried to create an association between painting and photography.http://www.cmp.ucr.edu/collections/permanent/object_genres/photographers/women/pictorialism.html The artists would try to make the photograph appear painted by altering it by hand.http://www.cmp.ucr.edu/collections/permanent/object_genres/photographers/women/pictorialism.html However, by 1902, Stieglitz had helped found a new fine art photography movement called Photo-Secession.http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/stgp/hd_stgp.htm#thumbnails This movement attempted to define the aesthetic of art photography separately from painting.http://www.cmp.ucr.edu/collections/permanent/object_genres/photographers/women/pictorialism.html It focused on unaltered photographs instead of the painterly style.http://www.cmp.ucr.edu/collections/permanent/object_genres/photographers/women/pictorialism.html According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alfred Stieglitz achieved artistry in his photographs through compositional choices and the use of natural elements like rain, snow, and steam to unify the components of a scene into a visually pleasing pictorial whole.http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/stgp/hd_stgp.htm#thumbnails