Existing comment:
Ralph Steiner, 1899-1986
Although the photographer and filmmaker Ralph Steiner studied pictorialist photography at the Clarence White School, he shifted toward modernism after encountering Paul Strand and his photography around 1927. Strand's work caused Steiner to realize that he "was not yet a photographer." To perfect his technique, Steiner bought an 8 x 10 large-format camera and spent three months working intensively at Yaddo, an artist's retreat near Saratoga Springs, New York. That summer he made many photographs of billboards, and shortly there- after, he created this self-portrait. The composition features an enormous billboard, with one image partially pulled away to reveal another, and Steiner posing at the bottom of the frame, cradling his camera like a heavy infant as he stares out at the viewer. Steiner's acerbic wit, so evident in his writing, and often in his photographs, is clear in the concep- tion of this image, with its visual complexity.
1929 |