Pure and Straight Photography - Blog Task 3.

Alfred Stieglitz -  Looking Northwest from the Shelton, New York – 1932.

 
 

Alfred Stieglitz, known for the birth of straight photography, believes the force behind the establishment of the photograph to the status of an art, is its own right. He often sees a picture of ‘shapes’ and abstract patterns in his photographs, with no manipulation.

I have chosen this image because it has the architectural approach to the pure and straight photography genre, also because it is focusing on the dark shadowy tone of the side of the building, taken almost from the front, being the main focal point of the image. There is a very harsh light on the side of the building, where the sun is shining, but Stieglitz focuses more on the shadow, creating a sharp, crisp image of The City, taken from up above, opposite the building. This creates a wider tonal range, very strong, atmospheric and highlighting the beauty of the buildings. Bright burst of sunlight intersperse with the dark shadows across the image in the background,  creating patterns and shapes with Stieglitz often depicts, allowing a more open view of the buildings further away.

Stieglitz is very much against manipulating a Photograph, believing that if you do this, you lose the purity of tone. He believes this is what separates photographers from artists and no manipulations in photographs, means they are ‘strictly photographic’, reflecting ‘the subject itself, in its own substance, and personality’.

The time this image was made, was when Stieglitz was, in his own right, moving away from Pictorialism and creating the new style of Pure and Straight Photography., pin sharp images with no manipulation. Stieglitz is now known for the birth of Pure and Straight Photography through these images.