Rebecca Salsbury Strand
1922
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image/paper/first mount: 9.2 × 12 cm (3 5/8 × 4 3/4 in.); Second mount: 33 × 26.7 cm (13 × 10 9/16 in.)
Classification
gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) pr
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
66392
Art Historical Context
Alfred Stieglitz's *Rebecca Salsbury Strand (1922) is an intimate gelatin silver print portrait that captures the poised elegance of its subject, a vibrant presence in early 20th-century American art circles. Stieglitz, a pioneering photographer and advocate for modernism, elevated photography from mere documentation to fine art through his influential Gallery 291 in New York. By 1922, he had transitioned toward "straight photography," emphasizing clarity detail, and emotional truth over pictorialist softness. Printed on developing-out gelatin silver paper—a contact printing process that yiel...
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 ...