December 1, 2007 through January 13, 2008

Nearly 50 photographs providing a rare glimpse into renowned photographer Edward Steichen’s personal work and early color photography experiments will be on view at the Museum this holiday season. On view December 1, 2007 through January 13, 2008, bloom! Experiments in Color Photography by Edward Steichen will also include Steichen’s black-and-white views of Walden Pond. His interest in botany, particularly in hybridization of delphiniums, is apparent in these still lifes and portraits, while his quiet landscapes reflect time away from his busy life as a photographer in New York. Drawn entirely from the George Eastman House collection, these selections will bring color to Rochester’s winter.

bloom! was part of a recent exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean in Luxembourg. Curators Françoise Poos and Christian Mosar organized bloom! when Luxembourg was named Cultural Capital of Europe in 2007, as a way to honor native son Steichen (1879–1973).

George Eastman House, where Steichen served as Honorary Trustee, holds the world’s largest collection of his work. The Steichen collection, featuring more than 11,000 prints and negatives, was given to the Museum between 1981 and 2001 by his widow, Joanna Steichen, who serves as a Museum Trustee Emeritus.

Edward Steichen’s numerous accomplishments included leading the early 20th-century Photo-Secession movement that raised art photography standards and awareness. He was the American armed forces photographic division commander in World War I, and director of the Naval Photographic Institute in World War II. His photographs covered a range of genres from pictorialism to documentary views of World War I and II, to provocative images of celebrities.

Steichen also curated more than 50 exhibitions for New York’s Museum of Modern Art, including Family of Man, which he considered his greatest achievement. In 2006, a copy of his early pictorialist work The Pond-Moonlight sold for $2.9 million, the highest price ever paid for a photograph at auction. The George Eastman House collection holds Steichen’s artistic masterpieces, personal images of his family, nature studies, and fashion photography for international publications.