Photo-Secession

Group of U.S. photographers influenced by the Pictorialist movement. Founded in 1902 by Alfred Stieglitz, the Photo-Secession sought recognition of photography as an art to be judged on its own terms. It was akin to such groups as the Linked Ring in London, and its name reflected that of the Sezession movement in Austria and Germany. The group regularly showed its work at the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, also known as “291” (its address on Fifth Avenue in New York City), a gallery run by Stieglitz. While Stieglitz did not believe in retouching or manipulating negatives or prints, others of the group, such as Edward Steichen, were adherents of the impressionistic soft-focus school and the new techniques. By 1910 many members of the group left due to different aesthetic visions. The record of the Photo-Secession is contained in the quarterly Camera Work (1903–17).

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