From Room "3003" - The Shelton, New York, Looking Northeast
1927
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image/paper/first mount: 9.2 × 11.8 cm (3 5/8 × 4 11/16 in.); Second mount: 31.9 × 25.2 cm (12 9/16 × 9 15/16 in.)
Classification
gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) pr
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
66317
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
For more on the Alfred Stieglitz collection at the Art Institute, along with in-depth object information, please visit the website: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection.
Art Historical Context
Alfred Stieglitz's *From Room "3003 - The Shelton, New York, Looking Northeast* (1927) captures a intimate glimpse of Manhattan's skyline from the artist's high-rise apartment at the Shelton Hotel, where he lived with Georgia O'Keeffe 1925 onward. This gelatin silver print, measuring just 9.2 × 11.8 cm on its primary mount, belongs to Stieglitz's celebrated "From My New York" series, which celebrated the raw geometry and dynamism of the burgeoning skyscraper era. As a pioneer of modern photography, Stieglitz elevated the medium to fine art, moving from Pictorialism's soft-focus romanticism to "straight photography"—crisp, unmanipulated images that embraced reality's precision. Printed on developing-out-paper, a gelatin silver process popular in the 1920s for its deep blacks and luminous highlights, this small-scale work exemplifies Stieglitz's late-career fascination with urban abstraction. The northeast view likely frames iconic towers like the Chrysler Building under construction nearby, symbolizing America's industrial ambition amid the Jazz Age. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Photography and Media department, it underscores Stieglitz's role in institutionalizing photography, influencing generations to see the everyday cityscape as profound visual poetry. Though modest in size, its second mount (31.9 × 25.2 cm) hints at display intentions for intimate appreciation, inviting viewers to ponder the poetry in steel and shadow.
About the Artist
Alfred Stieglitz · 1864–1946
Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) was a pioneering American photographer, art dealer, publisher, and advocate for the Modernist movement who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, to German Jewish immigrant parents, Stieglitz spent his formative years studying mechanical engineering in Berlin, where he discovered photography in ...