Deconstructing Environmental Photographers

Edward Steichen, 'The Flatiron, New York', 1905

Steichen began experimenting with colour photography in 1904 and was one of the first people in the United States to use the Lumiere Autochrome process.

The Autochrome Lumière is an early color photography process. Patented in 1903 by the Lumière brothers in France and first marketed in 1907, it was the principal color photography process in use before the advent of subtractive color film in the mid-1930s.

Steichen was a leader in the Pictorialist movement, which asserted that photography was an art form in which the creativity of the artist was most evident in the way that a picture was printed, not so much in composition.

Although he used only one negative to create all three photographs, the variable coloring enabled him to create three significantly different images that convey the chromatic 

progression of twilight.

Picture was taken in the evening, where there was some light fog and drizzle. Wet road, fuzzy lighthouses, the hackney –these elements build a slightly mysterious mood.

Camera position: on the street, looking straight on the street. Because of the fact that The Flatiron Building was considered a very modern building and a lot of people vigourously disliked it; photographer choosen to show it as a part of the city.

Alfred Stieglitz, 'The Flatiron', 1903

Alfred Stieglitz:

'the Flatiron Building ‘appeared to be moving toward me like the bow of a monster steamer–a picture of a new America still in the making.’

Stieglitz subscribed to a theory that the principal subject of a photo should be in sharp focus while secondary elements should be left out of focus.

Photograph is contrasted with the natural shape of the tree in the snow and evening light, the building is an element of quiet beauty in a photograph of soft tones and simple shapes.

Tiny figure on the park bench - in New York, buildings do the job of making people seem tiny.

Alvin Langdon Coburn, ‘The Flatiron Building’, 1911

Looking at this photograph for the first time seems to be out of focus. Later on viewr can see some details (such a windows) of the Flatiron Building.

This photograph shows the modern city, with anonimus businessmen. Camera position show us that photographer is one of the passers-by.

Those three photographs have quite similar composition and camera position. There is a presence of trees. All photographs include kind of street view and human figures.

Also all photographs are taken in the evening.

Walter Gropius, ‘The Flatiron Building, New York’, 1928

In this photograph Gropius found the Flatiron Building profile irresistibly exciting, despite the building's old-fashioned decoration.

The way how the photograph is framed and cropped brings very original and modern look of the building.

Unlike the three first photographs, there is no street view. The Flatiron Building is shown here as a great, modern architecture with little taste of surrealism.  

Walker Evans, ‘Flatiron Building seen from below, New York City’, 1928

In this photograph, photographer relies on the cameras ability to capture every single detail in sharp focus. As photograph title says picture is taken from below, by this camera position photographer show majesty of the building.

But because of the presence of the lantern and kind of shed, likewise the way how picture is cropped, the Flatiron Building is closed in defined space.

Composition of the photograph; where strong lines of architecture around, leaad viewers eyes into the main subject.

Berenice Abbott, ‘The Flatiron Building’, 1938

"Photography doesn’t teach you how to express your emotions; it teaches you how to see."

Berenice Abbott was a documentary photographer; in her photographs she captured two words, such a real and now.

Photograph of the Flatiron Building is a documental representation of the American architecture.

In conclusion Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz and Alvin Langdon Coburn represented the icon (The Flatiron Building) through tradiction artistic way. Where they include the city life.

Walter Gropius, Walker Evans and Berenice Abbott used documentary style. They showed the bulidng as an icon of modernization of the city.