Chicago Art Institute, Alfred Stieglitz and the 19th Century

[diversey]

This is too bad. Thanks!

Crap. I'm sorry to miss that.

I'm flattered by your interest in my class. Thank you. Sorry but no for a couple of reasons. First-you couldn't get through the security in the building. Two-the class is always very full-simply no room and it becomes an insult to the people who are paying 3K (I think) to take the class.

[Tony Karnezis]

Hmm, maybe I should take this personally! They don't like me perhaps? Or maybe they've all been inundated with people carrying cellphones putting their live on social media and they've given up? The rules seem to have changed...

When I asked if I could take photos, I simply said "I'm not Wasserman," and they said ok.

Like you surmised, I'll bet it's like photography at rock concerts - too hard to police everyone. Times have changed.

[cowanw]

We just got back from a weekend visit to this and a South Shore gallery visit in Munster with Adam's museum prints from his daughter's collection.
Quite a point and counter point to see the two back to back. High contrast and sharp on the one hand and lower contrast and textured papers on the other.
I also have seen an original Lodge Pole Pines printed as a platinum print, previously; this was a silver gelatin print with high contrast but soft focus. I preferred the platinum treatment. I spent a long time trying to see signs of burning and dodging and I have always wondered whether the shaft of light is more dodge than not in Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada, Lone Pine.
The Art institute collection is superb. A very nice exhibit of several practitioners of the time. Nice to see Day and Coburn and Evans. I thought the prints of white were not very representative, excepting the superb portrait of Stieglitz.
What is particularily interesting is the original enlargement prints of a few prints compared with the silver gelatin contact prints of later years.
One of these is the The Steerage, with a very nice print of the bight hat and walkway, compared to the silver print which has the figures in steerage of similar bright tones as the hat and walkway. To me the recognition of this print as a signpost of modernism is more apparent in the printing than the image.
I should have taken a monopod. as the lighting yielded speeds of 1/30 sec for me.

[Tony Karnezis]

What is particularily interesting is the original enlargement prints of a few prints compared with the silver gelatin contact prints of later years.
One of these is the The Steerage, with a very nice print of the bight hat and walkway, compared to the silver print which has the figures in steerage of similar bright tones as the hat and walkway. To me the recognition of this print as a signpost of modernism is more apparent in the printing than the image. I should have taken a monopod. as the lighting yielded speeds of 1/30 sec for me.

That was my favorite part of the exhibit.

[r_a_feldman]

In would also recommend seeing the 40th Anniversary Exhibit at the Columbia College Museum of Contemporary Photography, about a half mile south of the Art Institute, at 600 S Michigan Avenue, through April 10, 2016. It is free. I was there briefly today and intend to go back several times. There are about 150 photos, most 20th Century. Unfortunately, they are almost collaged floor-to ceiling, so there are not optimal viewing conditions. Still, quite a range of photos.

I enjoyed the exhibit at the AIC. I thought the explanatory panels were a little provincial, however, giving too much credit to Stieglitz for making photography ART. Julia Margaret Cameron had promoted her prints as art, which the exhibit overlooks.

Bob