Self-Portrait (Autorretrato), 1915. Copia positiva de plata en gelatina. 24,4 x 19,7 cm.. Cortesía de The Richard and Jackie Hollander Collection, Los Angeles © Joanna T. Steichen

After the Grand Prix – Paris (Después del Grand Prix-París), 1907. Copia positiva directa al carbón, positivada en 1911. 27,1 x 29,5 cm. Cortesía de The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York © Joanna T. Steichen

As a photographer of great renown in both amateur and professional circles, an editor, curator, horticulturalist, entrepreneur, promoter, and showman, Steichen’s reach was extraordinary. His picture-making interests and enthusiasms were extremely diverse: portraiture, the nude, flower photography, fashion, dance, theatre, still life, landscape and nature. He was one of the first to bridge the gap between creative photography and editorial, illustrational, and other applied usages of the medium.

The Maypole – The Empire State Building, New York, 1932 (El poste, Empire State Building, Nueva York), Copia positiva de plata en gelatina de montaje negativo, 24,4 x 19,4 cm., Cortesía de Richard and Ronay Menschel Collection, United States © Joanna T. Steichen

Mrs. Eugene Meyer, Nueva York, 1910. Copia positiva directa al carbón. 27,6 x 22,4 cm. Cortesía de The Museum of Modern Art, New York © Joanna T. Steichen

In the early decades of the century Steichen, in collaboration with Alfred Steiglitz, helped found the Photo-Secession and its influential journal, Camera Work. He was largely responsible for introducing to the U.S. audience the work of such European modernists as Rodin, Matisse, and Picasso. Between the two world wars Steichen achieved the pinnacle of success in commercial photography as photographer-in-chief for the Condé Nast publications Vogue and Vanity Fair. During the two world wars he served with distinction as a military photographer and propagandist, organizing influential and highly innovative exhibitions in support of the war effort. Later he helped chart the course of post-war photography from his position as photography curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, during the course of which he produced the most widely-seen photography exhibition of all time, The Family of Man, along with its widely distributed catalogue.

George Washington Bridge, New York, 1931 (El puente George Washington, Nueva York), Copia positiva de plata en gelatina, 24,8 x 19,4 cm. Cortesía de The Richard and Jackie Hollander Collection, Los Angeles © Joanna T. Steichen

Rodin, le Penseu, 1905. Cortesía de Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid © Joanna T. Steichen

Steichen’s career was filled with controversy. His early partner, Alfred Stieglitz, considered Steichen’s move into the world of fashion and advertising treasonous, while his old Pictorialist colleagues were outraged at his seeming abandonment of their noble aims. Some critics saw his work for the Condé Nast empire as obsessed with glamour. Many opposed his replacement of Beaumont Newhall as head of the Photography Department at MoMA. Others criticized The Family of Man as naively sentimental, and questioned his use of photographers’ work to further polemical aims.

Greta Garbo, 1928. Copia positiva por contacto de plata en gelatina. 24,5 x 19,1 cm.. Cortesía de George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film, Rochester, New York © 1928 Condé Nast Publications

Heavy Roses, Voulangis, France (Rosas intensas, Voulangis, Francia), 1914 . Copia positiva de plata en gelatina, positivada ca.1960. 20,3 x 25,4 cm. Cortesía de Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York © Joanna T. Steichen

The tension between 'art photography' and 'commercial photography' endures even today. Emblematic of that, Steichen remains a polarizing figure, which perhaps explains the lack of serious retrospective consideration until now. Younger people, however, are intrigued by his commitment to defending the commercial/utilitarian role of photography while championing with equal vigor its artistic potential. Hence this survey provides a most timely opportunity to reconsider Steichen’s various activities and their implications while focussing on the central but too-often overlooked component of his project – his five decades’ work as a photographer.