Sepia thoughts

Beckett Gladney

In Homage To...

Gertrude Kaesbier

Gertrude Stanton was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on 18th May, 1852. She married Eduard Kaesbier, a German immigrant and successful businessman, in 1874.

After studying at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn she opened her own photographer studio in Manhattan in 1897. Alfred Stieglitz organised her first solo exhibition at the Camera Club in 1899. In 1902 Kaesbier joined with Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Alvin Langdon Coburn, and Clarence White to form the Photosecession Group. She was often at odds with Stieglitz and resigned from the group in 1912. She co-founded the Pictorial Photographers of America, along with Alvin Langdon Coburn and Clarence H. White, in 1915. Her work was featured in the first issue of Camera Work. Gertrude Kasebier died in New York City in 1934.

A contemporary critic praised her for having done more for artistic portraiture than any other of her time (painter or photographer) by her sense of "what to leave out." She was keen on allegorical themes; one of her series was on motherhood. It was said of her that her purpose in taking photographs was "not to inform, but to share an experience, to evoke an emotional response from the viewer."

Sources:
Robert Leggat
Spartacus SchoolNet