STIEGLITZ: A Memoir/Biography

by Sue Davidson Lowe ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1982

Alfred Stieglitz rued his family, says grandniece Sue Davidson Lowe; yet he could not (and would not) be parted from them or from the family enclave at Lake George. ""He seems to have needed them, if only to rekindle his rebellion, to fuel his purpose."" This, then, is not only the first full-scale biography of fabled photographer and modern-art impresario Stieglitz (1864-1946), it is also the plummy saga of four generations of Stieglitzes, and his relationships with each--recounted with a considerable, vitalizing edge, as if all those abused relatives were at once exposing ""Alfredian hyperbole"" and claiming part of the aura. So we see nine-year-old Alfred, singled out by his bon vivant father as a companion (to the lasting resentment of his siblings), setting a fee for each small errand. We're reminded that twelve-year-old Alfred's generosity to the neighborhood organ grinder came from the family larder. We hear that the adult Alfred--disdainful of worldly goods, averse to selling his photographs--depended on family allowances or the income of his wives. His claims to originality are similarly twitted: Mother Hedwig, ""the family clown,"" understood him well enough; as a student in 1880s Berlin, he sopped up lots of influences. But in photography, which nine-year-old Alfred discovered that first Lake George summer, his course was altogether and intractably his own--through experiments and prizes in Europe; a N.Y.C. business that failed; conflicts with colleagues at the Society of Amateur Photographers and then the Camera Club. He married, disastrously--and, in Lowe's interpretation, directed his manic energy into his work. In his own imperious way, he would become a ""people collector,"" like his fabulous-host father; he would then quarrel with his closest collaborators--Steichen, Strand--just as he quarreled with his siblings. Lowe, now in her '60s, also recalls the euphoric early O'Keeffe years--the ""erotic tension"" between them, the productivity of both. That joy would subside as O'Keeffe claimed independence in the Southwest and Stieglitz, growing old, grew increasingly querulous. . . never, however, losing his enthusiasm for the spirited young. Family cameos aplenty, and the genius rampant.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1982

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1982

Categories: NONFICTION