Though the Photo-Secession was only loosely
organized, without a constitution or by-laws, it
did have several categories of membership; the
Council, which provided leadership to the group;
Fellows, selected by the Council for the quality of
their photography; and Associate members, who
may not have been photographers but who had
demonstrated a sympathy with the goals of the
Photo-Secession. From its beginning the Council
included among its members Stieglitz, Steichen,
Ka ̈sebier, Keiley, Eugene, Fuguet, Strauss, John
G. Bullock, Robert S. Redfield, Eva Watson-
Schu ̈tze, Edmund Stirling, and William B. Dyer,
all leading New School pictorialist photographers.
What set the Photo-Secession apart from other
organizations that might claim to serve the same
purposes was Stieglitz’s determination to see pictori-
alism accepted as a fine art. Toward that end Stie-
glitz saw that controlling the conditions in which
Photo-Secession photographs were seen was key.
He first demanded of exhibition authorities that
Photo-Secession work be accepted and exhibited as
a group and not be submitted to a jury. Later, with
the founding ofCamera Work, he was able to pre-
sent Photo-Secession photographs in well-crafted
reproductions, and to publish analysis and commen-
tary on pictorial photography in keeping with his
views. And with the founding of the Little Galleries
of the Photo-Secession he was able to present photo-
graphs under gallery conditions that he also con-
trolled and that befitted their status as art.
Camera Work
Just asCamera Notes had served Stieglitz as an
invaluable means of presenting New School pictori-
alism to a far a larger audience than simply the
members of the Camera Club of New York, so
would a printed journal be of vital importance to
the Photo-Secession in presenting its work. With the
same editorial staff with whom he had published
the earlier journal, Stieglitz foundedCamera Work
in 1903. In Camera Work Stieglitz reproduced
photographs by members of the Photo-Secession
and other pictorialists, reproductions of non-photo-
graphic art, notes about Photo-Secession exhibitions
and organizational news, and essays by artists, wri-
ters, and critics such as Max Weber, Gertrude Stein,
Sadakichi Hartmann, and Charles Caffin.Camera
Workserved as a laboratory for translating original
photographic prints—often painstakingly hand-
crafted prints—into photomechanical reproductions,
using a variety of such processes, including photo-
gravure, four-color halftones, and collotypes, to
yield reproductions with a greater sense of fidelity
to the originals than was common in the photo-
graphic press.Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession (291)
The Photo-Secession was in essence an exhibition
society, providing opportunities for its members to
exhibit as a group under conditions subject to their
control, and promoting their work through the
photographic press, inCamera Work, or through
articles placed in other publications. But until 1905
the Photo-Secession had no exhibition space of its
own. When photographs by the Secession were
shown it was in invitational exhibitions sent abroad
to Europe, or held in the United States at such
venues as the Corcoran Art Galleries in Washing-
ton, D.C., and at the Pittsburgh Art Galleries of
the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In late 1905, at the suggestion of Edward Steichen,
Stieglitz rented rooms on the top floor of the build-
ing at 291 Fifth Avenue in New York. These few
small rooms became the Little Galleries of the
Photo-Secession and were later known simply as
291 from the building’s address. They would be the
Photo-Secession’s home until 1917.
At 291 Stieglitz staged individual and group
exhibitions of photography by members of the
Photo-Secession and prominent pictorialist photo-
graphers in sympathy with the organization’s
goals. It was operated as a commercial gallery
and for the most part works displayed there were
offered for sale, though the commercial aspects of
the gallery and Stieglitz’s handling of them became
a source of discord among members of the Photo-
Secession. Photographs were not the only art
works exhibited at 291. From 1908 on Stieglitz
began to show paintings, drawings, and sculpture
in exhibitions arranged in part by Edward Stei-
chen, who lived in France at the time and was a
vital connection for Stieglitz to the art centers of
Europe. Steichen made it possible for Stieglitz to
show work by the painters Paul Cezanne, Henri
Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and the sculptor Auguste
Rodin, among others. Visitors to 291 also saw
exhibitions of African sculpture and children’s
art. Works by the American modernists John
Marin, Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and
Arthur Dove, whom Stieglitz supported for the
remainder of his career, were also shown at 291.Demise of the Organization
From 1908 Stieglitz’s interest in pictorial photogra-
phy seemed to wane, as he grew tired of the struggle
to attain his goals and as the achievements of pic-PHOTO-SECESSION