Camera Notes
Encyclopedia
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
journal published by the Camera Club of New York from 1897 to 1903. It was edited for most of that time by photographer Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form...
and was considered the most significant American photography journal of its time. It is valuable today both as a record of photographic aesthetics of the time and for its many high-quality photogravures by photographers such as Stieglitz, F. Holland Day
F. Holland Day
Fred Holland Day was an American photographer and publisher. He was the first in the U.S.A. to advocate that photography should be considered a fine art.-Life:...
, Robert Demachy
Robert Demachy
Robert Demachy was a prominent French Pictorial photographer of the late 19th and early 20th century. He is best known for his intensely manipulated prints that display a distinct painterly quality.-Early years :...
, Frances Benjamin Johnston
Frances Benjamin Johnston
Frances "Fannie" Benjamin Johnston was one of the earliest American female photographers and photojournalists.- Life :...
, Gertrude Kasebier
Gertrude Käsebier
Gertrude Käsebier was one of the most influential American photographers of the early 20th century. She was known for her evocative images of motherhood, her powerful portraits of Native Americans and her promotion of photography as a career for women.-Early life :Käsebier was born Gertrude...
and Clarence H. White.
Background
In September, 1894, Alfred Stieglitz returned to New York after an extended tour in Europe. He found both the quality and quantity of what he considered to be artistic photography, such as that promoted by the Linked Ring in Britain, was much greater in Europe than in the United States, and he was determined to do something to advance fine art photography in America. He turned to the two major photographic clubs in New York, the Society of Amateur Photographers and the New York Camera Club, for assistance in his mission but received little interest from either organization. The critic Sadakichi HartmannSadakichi Hartmann
Carl Sadakichi Hartmann was a critic and poet of German and Japanese descent.Hartmann, born on the artificial island of Dejima, Nagasaki and raised in Germany, became an American citizen in 1894. An important early participant in modernism, Hartmann was a friend of such diverse figures as Walt...
noted that the clubs at that time were "as good as dead. There was no vitality in them. Photography was merely as pastime to them, and all they had to show were their innumerable portraits, transcripts of nature, views, and snapshots as is in the power of almost anyone to produce."
Stieglitz set about to change this situation, and within eighteen months he and his friends succeeded in bringing about a merger of the two clubs. He immediately took over as Vice President of the newly formed and rejuvenated organization, now called The Camera Club of New York
The Camera Club of New York
Since 1884, The Camera Club of New York has been a forum to explore photography. Though the Club was created by well-to-do 'gentlemen' photography enthusiasts seeking a refuge from the mass popularization of the medium in the 1880s, it accepted its first woman as a member, Miss Elizabeth A...
. He envisioned the new organization as the American beacon of fine art photography, and to help promote his vision he proposed expanding the former newsletter of the club into a full-fledged journal with himself as editor. Later Stieglitz would write "As a condition precedent to undertaking this labor of love and enthusiasm, it was stipulated by our Editor [Stieglitz] that he would have unhampered and absolute control over all matters, direct or remote, relating to the conduct of the proposed publications; in short, Camera Notes, while published for the club, was nevertheless an independent institution."
History and context
The first issue of Camera Notes premiered in July, 1897. Ironically, the first issue did not live up to Stieglitz’s vision, for it contained mostly articles on the business of the Camera Club and none on aesthetics or other photographers. The two photogravures in that issue, including a portrait by Stieglitz, were also unremarkable. Nonetheless, Camera Notes was immediately well-received, and in the second issue Stieglitz published a sampling of the praise that had come from other photographic magazines. Britain’s Photogram, for example, said "Camera Notes is such a fine publication that we hesitate to use the adjectives necessary to describe it." With the second issue Stieglitz hit his editorial stride, with a full range of photographs and articles that included F. Holland DayF. Holland Day
Fred Holland Day was an American photographer and publisher. He was the first in the U.S.A. to advocate that photography should be considered a fine art.-Life:...
writing on "Art and the Camera" and Lee Ferguson lamenting on "Our Lack of Exhibitions".
With Camera Notes Stieglitz established the pattern he would continue for the rest of his life of exerting complete editorial and aesthetic control over all aspects of the publication. Occasionally he would allow some articles to express ideas contrary to his, mostly for the sake of allowing him to rebut them, but in general his opinions dominated the visual and literary contributions to the magazine.
Stieglitz also instilled in Camera Notes his belief that photographers should be familiar with other arts, since he saw his primary mission as promoting photography as a fine art itself. He included articles on Impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
, Symbolism
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
, genre painting
Genre painting
Genre works, also called genre scenes or genre views, are pictorial representations in any of various media that represent scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, and street scenes. Such representations may be realistic, imagined, or...
and portraiture
Portrait photography
Portrait photography or portraiture is the capture by means of photography of the likeness of a person or a small group of people , in which the face and expression is predominant. The objective is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the subject...
, and commentaries on aesthetics from well-known art critics and artists like Sadakichi Hartmann
Sadakichi Hartmann
Carl Sadakichi Hartmann was a critic and poet of German and Japanese descent.Hartmann, born on the artificial island of Dejima, Nagasaki and raised in Germany, became an American citizen in 1894. An important early participant in modernism, Hartmann was a friend of such diverse figures as Walt...
and Arthur Wesley Dow
Arthur Wesley Dow
Arthur Wesley Dow was an American painter, printmaker, photographer, and influential arts educator....
.
At the same time, Stieglitz regularly took the opportunity to promote his own work, and while he was editor he published twenty-two of his own photos in the magazine, including two images twice.
While Stieglitz sought independence from the Camera Club in his editorial work, very few of photographers whose work he reproduced came from outside the membership of the club. The most prominent of the non-Club members who were featured were F. Holland Day
F. Holland Day
Fred Holland Day was an American photographer and publisher. He was the first in the U.S.A. to advocate that photography should be considered a fine art.-Life:...
and Clarence H. White. Both figure prominently in Stieglitz’s concurrent efforts to promote pictorialism
Pictorialism
Pictorialism is the name given to a photographic movement in vogue from around 1885 following the widespread introduction of the dry-plate process. It reached its height in the early years of the 20th century, and declined rapidly after 1914 after the widespread emergence of Modernism...
through his establishment of the Photo-Secession
Photo-Secession
The Photo-Secession was an early 20th century movement that promoted photography as a fine art in general and photographic pictorialism in particular. A group of photographers, led by Alfred Stieglitz and F...
.
Eventually, Stieglitz’s autocratic direction of the journal came under fire from the membership of the Club. In spite of the record of reproducing work mostly by Club members, some members felt Stieglitz was spending too much time and effort promoting activities outside of the Club. He also faced criticism from more progressive members who felt that much of the work Stieglitz chose fell into the same tired aesthetics that he originally campaigned against. In late 1900 a special meeting of the Club was held to address these issues, and, while he appeared open to a democratic discussion of the journal, Stieglitz became upset that his leadership and aesthetic integrity were being questioned. He eventually became disillusioned with all of the in-fighting, and in early 1901 he announced that he would step down as editor after one more year.
In May, 1902, Juan C. Abel took over as editor. Abel, who was the Club’s librarian, had assisted Stieglitz with two issues of Camera Notes and had experience working on other photographic magazines. He sought to emphasize the change in editorial direction by redesigning the magazine, putting a new cover in place along with a more sophisticated layout. He also introduced the relatively bold concept of including at least one tipped-in, original photographs in each issue. In spite his editorial changes, however, Abel did not have the aesthetic sense of Stieglitz, and the overall quality of the images included in the magazine, including the original prints, was inferior when compared to the previous five years.
When Stieglitz began independently publishing his own journal Camera Work
Camera Work
Camera Work was a quarterly photographic journal published by Alfred Stieglitz from 1903 to 1917. It is known for its many high-quality photogravures by some of the most important photographers in the world and its editorial purpose to establish photography as a fine art...
in 1903, interest in Camera Notes quickly flagged. The photographers and critics who were at the forefront of fine art photography at the time recognized that, for all his shortcomings, Stieglitz really was the driving force in the movement.
The last issue of Camera Notes appeared in December 1903. A column under this name and written by members of the Camera Club subsequently appeared in two other magazines, but it contained only news and notes about the club itself.
Design and production
Each of the twenty-four issues of the magazine measured 10 ¼” by 7 ½” (26 cm by 19 cm). Volumes 1-4 displayed a green Art NouveauArt Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
cover with a design attributed to Thomas A. Sindelar, a student of Alphonse Mucha. Two other cover designs later appeared, in 1905 and 1906. There were numerous halftone reproduction of photos in each issue, but what made the journal stand out were the hand-pulled photogravures. At least two and as many as four meticulously printed photogravures were included in each issue. In addition there were commentaries, criticism and reviews by important photographers and critics of the time. In an average issue, about half of the articles dealt with individual photographers and aesthetic issues, and the rest covering technical matters and notices and reviews of international exhibitions. As Stieglitz biographer Katherine Hoffman points out, "Each issue of Camera Notes was an art object itself, with is finely printed photogravure
Photogravure
Photogravure is an intaglio printmaking or photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is coated with a light-sensitive gelatin tissue which had been exposed to a film positive, and then etched, resulting in a high quality intaglio print that can reproduce the detail and continuous tones of a...
s, well-designed layout and range of articles and text."
Issues and contents
Camera Notes was published quarterly from July, 1897 to December, 1902, and two more issues were published in 1903, for a total of twenty-four issues. The following is a complete list of the photogravures and halftones that appeared in the issues. For a detailed list of the published articles, see Peterson (1993).Volume 1 Number 1, July 1897
- Photographs: one by Emilie V. Clarkson; one by A. Horsely Hinton; one by John W. McKecknie; one by William B. Post; two by Alfred Stieglitz; one by Daniel K. Young.
Volume 1 Number 2, October 1897
- Photographs: one by W. H. Collins; one by F. Holland Day; one by Wilhelm von Gloeden; one by Karl Greger; one by Hugo Henneberg;one by Constant PuyoConstant PuyoÉmile Joachim Constant Puyo was a French photographer, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As the leading advocate of the Pictorialist movement in France, he championed the practice of photography as an artistic medium...
; two by Alfred Stieglitz.
Volume 1 Number 3, January 1898
- Photographs: one by Robert Demachy; four by Rudolf Eickemeyer Jr.; three by Emma J. Farnsworth; one by John Gear; one by Constant Puyo.
Volume 1 Number 4, April 1898
- Photographs: one by J. Craig Annan; six one by Zaida Ben-Yusuf; one by Charles I. Berg; one by F.A. Engle; one by William D. Murphy; one by William B. Post; one by Adolphus H. Stoiber; one by Henry Troth.
Volume 2 Number 1, July 1898
- Photographs: one by Hewitt A. Beasley; six one by Zaida Ben-Yusuf; one Emilie V. Clarkson; three by F. Holland Day; one by Robert Demachy; two by E. Lee Ferguson; one by Wilhelm von Gloeden; one by Karl Greger; one by William B. Post; two by Alfred Stieglitz.
Volume 2 Number 2, October 1898
- Photographs: one by Ernest R. Ashton; five by William E. Carlin; one by Emilie V. Clarkson; one by F. Holland Day; three by Rudolf Eickemeyer Jr.; two by Frances Benjamin Johnston; one by Henry Troth.
Volume 2 Number 3, January 1899
- Photographs: one by Charles I. Berg; one by Tom Bright; one by F. Holland Day; one by William A. Fraser; one by W. M. Hollinger; one by Frances Benjamin JohnstonFrances Benjamin JohnstonFrances "Fannie" Benjamin Johnston was one of the earliest American female photographers and photojournalists.- Life :...
; three by Alfred Stieglitz.
Volume 2 Number 4, April 1899
- Photographs: one by William E. Carlin; one by John Dumont; one by W. M. Hollinger; one by Frances Benjamin Johnston; five by Gertrude KäsebierGertrude KäsebierGertrude Käsebier was one of the most influential American photographers of the early 20th century. She was known for her evocative images of motherhood, her powerful portraits of Native Americans and her promotion of photography as a career for women.-Early life :Käsebier was born Gertrude...
; one by Alphonse Montant; one by William D. Murphy; one by Arthur Scott; two by Alfred Stieglitz; one by Hans Watzek; two by Mathilde Weil.
Volume 3 Number 1, July 1899
- Photographs: one by Zaida Ben-Yusuf; one by James L. Breese & Rudolf Eickemeyer Jr.; one by Cox [no first name given]; one by Frank EugeneFrank EugeneFrank Eugene was an American-born photographer who was a founding member of the Photo-Secession and one of the first university-level professors of photography in the world.-Life:...
; one by A. Horsely Hinton; four by Gertrude Käsebier; one by Rene Le Begue; one by Clarence H. White.
Volume 3 Number 2, October 1899
- Photographs: one by J. Craig Annan; one by John Beeby; one by Charles I. Berg; one by J. Edgar Bull; one by William J. Cassard; two by Ferdinand A. Clark; two by F. Holland Day; one by Rudolf Eickemeyer Jr.; one by Wilhelm von Gloeden; three by A. Hinton Horsley; one by William D. Murphy; one by George L. Ronalds; one by Elizabeth A. Slade; one by Alfred Stieglitz; one by Clarence H. White; one by Myra A. WigginsMyra Albert WigginsMyra Albert Wiggins was an American painter and pictorial photographer who became a member of the important early 20th century Photo-Secession movement.-Early years :...
.
Volume 3 Number 3, January 1900
- Photographs: one by Charles I. Berg; one by Eustace G. Calland; one by Desire Declercq; one by Robert Demachy; one by Pierre DubreuilPierre DubreuilPierre Dubreuil, born in Lille in 1872 and died in Grenoble in 1944, was a French photographer.- Biography :Pierre Dubreuil was born in a wealthy family, well-established in the wallpaper trade. In 1888 he joined the Jesuit College of Saint-Joseph in Lille and started to take pictures with a...
; one by Rudolf Eickemeyer Jr.; one by Emma J. Farnsworth; one by Hugo Henneberg; one by Sidney Herbert; two by A. Hinton Horsley; five by Joseph T. Keiley; one by Heinrich Kuehn; one by Leonard Misonne; one by George W. Norris; one by J. Henry Quinn; two by Eva Watson-SchützeEva Watson-SchützeEva Watson-Schütze was an American photographer and painter who was one of the founding members of the Photo-Secession.-Life:...
; one by Mathilde Weil; one by Clarence H. White.
Volume 3 Number 4, April 1900
- Photographs: nine by Frank Eugene; one by Dallett Fuguet; two by Gertrude Käsebier; one by Joseph T. Keiley; four by Alfred Stieglitz.
Volume 4 Number 1, July 1900
- Photographs: one by Frank C. Baker; one by Rudolf Eickemeyer Jr.; one by Hugo Henneberg; one by Theodore & Oscar Hofmeister; three by Gertrude Käsebier; six by Joseph T. Keiley; one by S. H. Lifshey; one by Oscar Maurer; one by Ralph W. Robinson.
Volume 4 Number 2, October 1900
- Photographs: one by J. Wesley Allison; one by Lionel C. Bennett; two by William E. Carlin; one by J. Wells Champney; two by Frederick Colburn Clarke: one by A. Walpole Cragie; two by Rudolf Eickemeyer Jr.; one by Dallett Fuguet; one by Karl Greger; one by Gertrude KäsebierGertrude KäsebierGertrude Käsebier was one of the most influential American photographers of the early 20th century. She was known for her evocative images of motherhood, her powerful portraits of Native Americans and her promotion of photography as a career for women.-Early life :Käsebier was born Gertrude...
; one by J. Ridgeway Moore; one by A. W. Scott; one by Arthur Scott; one by T. O’Connor Sloane Jr.; one by Sydney A. Smith; one by Alfred Stieglitz; one by Adolphus H. Stoiber; one by John Francis Strauss; one by Henry Troth; three by Eva Watson-SchützeEva Watson-SchützeEva Watson-Schütze was an American photographer and painter who was one of the founding members of the Photo-Secession.-Life:...
; one by Clarence H. White; one by Myra A. WigginsMyra Albert WigginsMyra Albert Wiggins was an American painter and pictorial photographer who became a member of the important early 20th century Photo-Secession movement.-Early years :...
; one by J. Dunbar Wright.:
Volume 4 Number 3, January 1901
- Photographs: four by J. Craig Annan; one by Frank Eugene; one by Gertrude Käsebier; one by Heinrich Kuehn; one by Robert S. Redfield; five by Edward Steichen; two by Alfred Stieglitz; one by Eva Watson-SchützeEva Watson-SchützeEva Watson-Schütze was an American photographer and painter who was one of the founding members of the Photo-Secession.-Life:...
; one by Hans Watzek; one by Clarence H. White.
Volume 4 Number 4, April 1901
- Photographs: one by Ernest R. Ashton; one by Rose Clark and Elizabeth Flint Wade; one by W. E. Johnson & Frank M. Hale; four by Rodrigues Ottolengui; one by Robert S. Redfield; one by Mary R. Standbery; one by Alfred Stieglitz; three by Clarence H. White.
Volume 5 Number 1, July 1901
- Photographs: one by Prescott Adamson; seven by Frederick Colburn Clarke; one by William B. Dyer; two by David Octavius Hill; three by Joseph T. Keiley; one by Leonard Misonne; one by William B. Post; five by Frank Meadow Sutcliffe.
Volume 5 Number 2, October 1901
- Photographs: one by James L. Breese; one by Charles A. Darling; one by Julian A. Dimock; one by Frank Eugene; one by E. Lee Ferguson; one by A. C. Gould; one by Walter C. Harris; one by F. Huber Hoge & Tom Hadaway; one by Gertrude Käsebier; one by Joseph T. Keiley; one by Sarah H. Ladd; one by Horace A. Latimer; one by Charles H. Loeber; one by Lewis M. McCormick; one by J. Ridgeway Moore; one by William J. Mullins; one by William W. Renwick; one by A. W. Scott; one by Benjamin Sharp; one by Edward Steichen; one by Charles W. Stevens; two by Alfred Stieglitz; one by Adolphus H. Stoiber; one by Clarence H. White.
Volume 5 Number 3, January 1902
- Photographs: one by C. Yarnall Abbott; one by J. Craig Annan; one by Will A. Colby; one by Heinrich Kuehn; two by Rodrigues Ottolengui; three by Alfred Stieglitz.
Volume 5 Number 4, April 1902
- Photographs: one by John. G Bullock; one by George Davison; one by Frederick Detlefsen; three by Hugo Henneberg; five by Heinrich Kuehn; one by Robert S. Redfield, one by Alfred Stieglitz.
Volume 6 Number 1, July 1902
- Photographs: one by Arthur E. Beecher; one by Robert Demachy; one by Mary DevensMary DevensMary Devens was an American photographer who was considered one of the ten most prominent pictorial photographers of the early 20th century...
; one by Rudolf Eickemeyer Jr.; one by Albert Fichte; one by Dallet Fuguet; one by Charles F. Inston; one by Gertrude Käsebier; one by Oscar Maurer; one by Alfred Stieglitz; one by Clarence H. White.
Volume 6 Number 2, October 1902
- Photographs: six by Frederick Colburn Clarke; two by Harry Countant; one by Edward W. Keck; one by Horace A. Latimer; one by Will H. Moses; one by William D. Murphy; one by Myra A. Wiggins; two by Osborne I. Yellott.
Volume 6 Number 3, February 1903
- Photographs: two by Charles I. Berg; three by Leverett W. Brownell; ten by Ed Heim and E.C. Heim; one by Pirei MacDonalad; one by James Patrick; two by Charles Simpson.
Volume 6 Number 4, December 1903
- Photographs: one by Juan C. Abel; one by Ernest G. Boon; one by Frederick Detlefsen; one by Rudolf Eickemeyer Jr.; one by Walter C. Harris; one by Lewis M. McCormick; one by Adolphus H. Stoiber. one by J.C. Vail.