Edward Steichen

Edward Steichen was born in Luxembourg in 1879, however moved with his family to Chicago, America in 1881, but moved to Milwaukee in 1889. When Steichen was 15, he went to study a four year lithography apprenticeship, and in his free time, taught himself to paint. He became very interesting in photography and in 1895 he bought himself his first camera – a Kodak Box ‘Detective’ camera.
In 1911 while in France he was asked by Lucien Vogel (publisher of two famous French magazines) to produce imagery of fashion that could be seen as fine art. He photographed women in gowns designed by Paul Poiret, the images were then published in April of 1911 in a magazine named ‘Art et Décoration’. The images were stunning and even named “the first ever modern fashion photography shoot”
One image that really brought Steichen to light was his 1928 image of actress Greta Garbo that people say captured her perfectly. (Below)

Though he worked as a photographer in both wars, he eventually moved on to predominantly Fashion Photography.
His work really is very fine art considering the fashion tones in it. I find the imagery beautiful and compositionally divine. Especially the image “Black” of a model in a black dress by a piano. Her pose echoes that of the grand piano.
I aim to use him as influence in more of my work.