Photo Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
2015.8.8 |
Photographer |
Martin, Ira Wright |
Title |
Steam and Steel |
Date |
1929 |
Object Name |
Print, Photographic |
Description |
Ira Wright Martin (New York, NY, 1886-1960) "Steam and Steel," 1929. Gelatin silver print, 7 1/8 x 9 3/8 inches. Pencil on back: Rec'd 24 Feb. '38 1929 "Steam and Steel" 5x7, (intell.) camera 8 1/2 "Ross Express E,K Portrait Pan Film, K2 Fitler Enlarged on azr.? Stamped on back: Ira W. Martin 10 East 71st Street New York City R Hinelander 4-9607. Ira Wright Martin was an alumnus of the Clarence H. White School in Manhattan. This school, named for its founder, an original member of the Photo-Secession group, evolved from the Seguinland School of Photography, which White had opened in Maine in 1910. After a schism in the Photo-Secession group due to Stieglitz's domineering personality, and because of the success of the Seguinland School, White formed a Manhattan branch of the school in 1914. It was the first educational institution in America to teach photography as art. In 1916, White founded the Pictorial Photographers of America (PPA) along with Gertrude Käsebier, Karl Struss, Margaret Bourke-White and Edward Dickinson. The theme of Martin's photographs was "New York in transition," focusing primarily on midtown, the rezoning laws of 1916, and the economic boom of the 1920s that led to an increase in building and development. Documentary photographs of new construction like "Steam and Steel" are evidence of the shift in focus of the Pictorialists, who responded to the changing aesthetics of the time. This photograph of the smoke stacks of a steel plant is a document of American industry, represented as an image of beauty. |