FT. DODGE, LA.- The Blanden Art Museum presents Stieglitz: Memorial Portfolio, on view through July 6, 2007. Eighteen images by Alfred Stieglitz, taken between 1892 and 1935, were selected by photographer Dorothy Norman and reproduced in a limited edition in 1947 as a memorial to Stieglitz.

Alfred Stieglitz was born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1864. Internationally acclaimed as a pioneer of modern photography, he produced a rich and significant body of work between 1883 and 1937. Stieglitz was also an editor, publisher, patron, and dealer of art, championing American modernists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, John Marin, Arthur Dove, Oscar Bluemner, Edward Steichen, and Paul Strand.

Stieglitz’s own work methods reflected his commitment to ‘straight’ photography, which generally avoided ‘dodging’ and retouching. He carefully selected and framed his subjects through the camera lens on to the glass plate negative. He preferred to use a sharp focus and generally refrained from editing or manipulating his prints. As the leader of the Photo-Secession, however, he exhibited and supported work of photographers who used a soft focus or other pictorial methods, but for his own work he restricted the range of control as much as possible to the camera, rather than the printing process. He was a meticulous craftsman who insisted on the best equipment and materials for his photographic work. For printing he preferred to use a high quality platinum paper imported from England, until its prohibitive cost ended its commercial manufacture in 1916.

The Stieglitz: Memorial Portfolio was purchased by the Blanden Charitable Foundation from Kenneth Hielbron of Galena, Illinois. Heilbron, a noted photographer who is perhaps best known for his scenes of circus life taken between the Depression and World War II, was the first instructor of photography at the Chicago Art Institute.