This is Michael Flicek’s first ever blog posting!
(First posted Aug. 10, 2010)
Wandering the streets of Manhattan this past April I came across this architectural structure which, thanks to Alfred Stieglitz, has been assured a prominent place in the history of fine art photography. Stieglitz was an early advocate for photography as an art form. Note the date on the following quote.
“There are many schools of painting. Why should there not be many schools of photographic art? There is hardly a right and a wrong in these matters, but there is truth, and that should form the basis of all works of art.” Alfred Stieglitz, American Amateur Photographer, 1893
Stieglitz repeatedly photographed this building and he made an iconic photograph of the building in 1903. On the day that Stieglitz made the photograph he recounted that he saw the building as he’d never seen it before, ”… as if it were moving toward me like the bow of a monster ocean steamer …”
To see Stieglitz’s Flatiron photograph click on this link:
Stieglitz went on to marry Georgia O’Keeffe and become a very influential figure in the New York art scene in the early twentieth century.
My photograph of the Flatiron building was made on the day that I first saw the building more than a century after Stieglitz made his photograph.
Attempting to imitate a master would be derivative. Just as Stieglitz saw the flatiron building in a new way on that day in 1903, photographers frequently encounter scenes from iconic photographs and are challenged to find a fresh interpretation. To me, this is a worthy challenge. What do you think? How do you approach these situations?
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