Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 4

Alfred Stieglitz
The Ferry Boat by Alfred Stieglitz, 1910, Photogravure, Photography

1910

About the Item

The Ferry Boat by Alfred Stieglitz is a photogravure on tissue. The photograph depicts a ferry boat on the water with a crowd of people on the lower level of the boat. The paper size is 11 x 7 3/4 in and the image size: 8 1/4 x 6 1/2 in. This photograph is from Stieglitz's book, Camera Work, Oct. 1991, 36:9. Few individuals have exerted as strong an influence on 20th-century American art and culture as the photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz. Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1864 during the Civil War, Stieglitz lived until 1946. He began to photograph while a student in Berlin in the 1880s and studied with the renowned photochemist Hermann Wilhelm Vogel. On his return to the United States in 1890, he began to advocate that photography should be treated as an art. He wrote many articles arguing his cause, edited the periodicals Camera Notes (1897–1902) and Camera Work (1903–1917), and in 1902 formed the Photo-Secession, an organization of photographers committed to establishing the artistic merit of photography. Stieglitz photographed New York for more than 25 years, portraying its streets, parks, and newly emerging skyscrapers; its horse-drawn carriages, trolleys, trains, and ferry boats; as well as some of its people. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, he also focused his camera on the landscape around his summer home in Lake George, New York. In 1918 Stieglitz became consumed with photographing his future wife, the artist Georgia O’Keeffe. For many years he had wanted to make an extended photographic portrait—he called it a composite portrait—in which he would study one person over a long period. Over the next 19 years he made more than 330 finished portraits of her. Beginning in 1922 and continuing throughout the 1920s, he also became preoccupied with another subject, clouds, making more than 300 finished studies of them. Photography was always of central importance to Stieglitz: not only was it the medium he employed to express himself, but, more fundamentally, it was the touchstone he used to evaluate all art. Just as it is apparent today that computers and digital technology will dominate not only our lives but also our thinking in this century, so too did Stieglitz realize, long before many of his contemporaries, that photography would be a major cultural force in the 20th century. Fascinated with what he called “the idea of photography,” Stieglitz foresaw that it would revolutionize all aspects of the way we learn and communicate and that it would profoundly alter all of the arts. Stieglitz’s own photographs were central to his understanding of the medium: they were the instruments he used to plumb both its expressive potential and its relationship to the other arts. When he began to photograph in the early 1880s, the medium was barely 40 years old. Complicated and cumbersome and employed primarily by professionals, photography was seen by most as an objective tool and utilized for its descriptive and recording capabilities. By the time ill health forced Stieglitz to stop photographing in 1937, photography and the public’s perception of it had changed dramatically, thanks in large part to his efforts. Through the publications he edited, including Camera Notes, Camera Work, and 291; through the exhibitions he organized; and through his own lucid and insightful photographs, Stieglitz had conclusively demonstrated the expressive power of the medium.
  • Creator:
    Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1910
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 11 in (27.94 cm)Width: 7.25 in (18.42 cm)Depth: 0.07 in (1.78 mm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Dallas, TX
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 120521stDibs: LU215465672
More From This SellerView All
  • Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson, Mercedes 300 SLR Mille Miglia, Italy
    By Jesse Alexander
    Located in Dallas, TX
    Signed in black ink on print margin by Jesse Alexander Paper size: 16 x 20 in., Image size: 11 1/2 x 17 in. "The Mercedes W196 of Stirling Moss practices in the rain on one of the fastest road racing circuits in Europe. Moss teamed with the Argentine champion, Juan Manuel Fangio, as the two drivers spearheaded the Mercedes effort in 1995, dominating the season. This is the open-wheeled version of the W196, a car that Mercedes uses today at historic events around the world to promote its racing heritage." -Caption from "Driven: The Racing Photography...
    Category

    20th Century Modern Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Silver Gelatin

  • Phil Hill, Ferrari. 1561F2, Nurburgring, Germany
    By Jesse Alexander
    Located in Dallas, TX
    No Edition Signed in black ink on print margin by Jesse Alexander Gelatin silver print Paper size: 14 x 11 in. Image size: 9 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. "Soon-to-be World Champion Phil Hill is in his first Grand Prix drive for Ferrari. The car is a single seater Formula Two machine, and he is seen rushing downhill through the infamous "Fuchsröhre" section of the Ring. The image is unusual for several reasons: it was taken with a Rolleiflex camera...
    Category

    1950s Modern Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Silver Gelatin

  • Juan Manuel Fangio, Maserati 250F, Reims, France
    By Jesse Alexander
    Located in Dallas, TX
    No Edition Signed in ink on print margin by Jesse Alexander Gelatin silver print Paper size: 11 x 14 in. Image size: 7 1/2 x 11 1/2 in. "Fangio is exiting a slow corner and looks ov...
    Category

    20th Century Modern Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Silver Gelatin

  • Fangio, Ferrari, 1000 KM Nürburgring
    By Jesse Alexander
    Located in Dallas, TX
    Signed in black ink on print margin. Paper size: 16 x 19 1/2 in, Image size: 10 3/4 x 16 3/4 in. "The Mercedes W196 of Stirling Moss practices in the rain on one of the fastest road racing circuits in Europe. Moss teamed with the Argentine champion, Juan Manuel Fangio, as the two drivers spearheaded the Mercedes effort in 1995, dominating the season. This is the open-wheeled version of the W196, a car that Mercedes uses today at historic events around the world to promote its racing heritage." -Caption from "Driven: The Racing Photography...
    Category

    20th Century Modern Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Silver Gelatin

  • 1000 Kilometer Race Start, Nurburgring, Germany
    By Jesse Alexander
    Located in Dallas, TX
    No Edition. Signed in black ink on print margin by Jesse Alexander Gelatin silver print Paper size: 14 x 11 in. Image size: 9 1/4 x 9 1/4 in. Jesse Alexander was considered one of t...
    Category

    20th Century Modern Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Silver Gelatin

  • Washington, D.C
    By Don Donaghy
    Located in Dallas, TX
    Signed, titled, and dated in ink on print margin. American street photographer Don Donaghy (1936 - 2008 b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), was a fourth-generation native of Philadelp,h...
    Category

    1960s Modern Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Silver Gelatin

You May Also Like
  • Chrysler Building from Madison Avenue
    By Tom Baril
    Located in New York, NY
    Photogravure from the Tom Baril 'Manhattan' Portfolio. Edition of 75, signed by the artist on bottom right. Framing: acid free, archival framed, cotton rag mat. Glazing: Optium muse...
    Category

    Early 2000s Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Photogravure

  • Chrysler Building at Night
    By Tom Baril
    Located in New York, NY
    Photogravure from the Tom Baril 'Manhattan' Portfolio. Edition of 75, signed by the artist on bottom right. Framing: acid free, archival framed, cotton rag mat. Glazing: Optium muse...
    Category

    Early 2000s Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Photogravure

  • 59th Street Bridge
    By Tom Baril
    Located in New York, NY
    Photogravure from the Tom Baril 'Manhattan' Portfolio. Edition of 75, signed by the artist on bottom right. Framing: acid free, archival framed, cotton rag mat. Glazing: Optium muse...
    Category

    Early 2000s Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Photogravure

  • French Contemporary Collotype Photograph Black White Photo Andre Naggar
    By Andre Naggar
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Photos pictured of information cards after the images of the black and white photos are not included. La Chute D'Icare (The Fall of Icarus) is a original, black and white photograp...
    Category

    1990s Contemporary Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Photogravure

  • French Contemporary Collotype Photograph Black White Photo Andre Naggar
    By Andre Naggar
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Photos pictured of information cards after the images of the black and white photos are not included. La Chute D'Icare (The Fall of Icarus) is a original, black and white photograp...
    Category

    1990s Contemporary Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Photogravure

  • French Contemporary Collotype Photograph Black White Photo Andre Naggar
    By Andre Naggar
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Photos pictured of information cards after the images of the black and white photos are not included. La Chute D'Icare (The Fall of Icarus) is a original, black and white photograp...
    Category

    1990s Contemporary Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Photogravure

Recently Viewed

View All