Alvin Langdon Coburn was an American photographer from the 20th century who played a major role in the development American pictorialism. He was the first major photographer who emphasized the visual potential of elevated views and later took some of the most abstract photographs.
Table of Contents
- 1 Life
- 1.1 Childhood (1882-1899)
- 1.2 Rise to fame (1900-1905) Frederick H. Evans, another prominent photographer, was attracted to Coburn’s prints at Royal Photographic Society. Evans was one of the founders of the Linked Ring, an association of artistic photographers that was considered at that time to be the highest authority for photographic aesthetics. Coburn was invited by them to exhibit in the summer 1900, elevating him to the top of the best photographers of that time. In 1901 Coburn lived in Paris for a few months so he could study with photographer Edward Steichen and Robert Demachy. For the rest of the year, he and his mother toured France and Germany with his mother. Coburn started studying photography with Gertrude Kasebier, a New York photographer, when they returned to America in 1902. He opened a photography studio on Fifth Avenue but spent much of his time that year studying with Arthur Wesley Dow at his School of Art in Massachusetts. At the same time, his mother continued to promote her son whenever she could. Stieglitz once told an interviewer, “Fannie Coburn devoted much energy trying to convince both Day and me that Alvin was a greater photographer than Steichen.” The following year Coburn was elected as an Associate of The Linked Ring, making him one of the youngest members of that group and one of only a few Americans to be so honored. He was honored with his first one-man show at Camera Club of New York in May. In July, Stieglitz published one of Coburn’s gravures in Camera Works. 3. In 1904 Coburn returned to London with a commission from The Metropolitan Magazine to photograph England’s leading artists and writers, including G. K. Chesterton, George Meredith, and H. G. Wells. He also visited J. Craig Annan, a renowned Edinburgh photographer, and studied the motifs of pioneering photographers Hill & Adamson. Six more of his images were published in Camera Work, No. 6 (April 1904). He photographed Leon Dabo, an American artist in 1905. Coburn was in London for most of 1905 and 1906. He took portraits and landscapes throughout England. He took Henry James photos for The Century magazine, and then returned to Edinburgh to complete a series of visualizations for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Edinburgh. Picturesque Notes.Symbolist period (1906-1912)
- 1.3 Explorations (1913-1923) Coburn’s fame grew further when he published Men of Mark in 1913. The book featured 33 gravure prints of important European and American authors, artists and statesmen, including Henri Matisse, Henry James, Auguste Rodin, Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt and Yeats. He says in the preface of the book: Coburn organized the 1915 exhibition Old Masters of Photography. It was shown at the Albright Knox Art Gallery in the U.S. and the Royal Photographic Society of London in London. Many historical prints were included in the show, including some from Coburn’s collection. The following year two pivotal events occurred in his life. He met George Davison, a fellow photographer and a philanthropist who was involved in Theosophy and Freemasonry. Coburn was then able to study mysticism and metaphysical ideals, as well as Druidism. Ezra Pound introduced him to Britain’s short-lived Vorticism movement. Coburn was intrigued by the new visual aesthetics and began to reexamine his photography style. He made a bold portrait of Pound that featured three different sized overlapping images. Within a brief period he moved from this semi-representative image to a series of abstract images that are among the first completely non-representative photographs ever made. To make these images Coburn invented a kaleidoscope-like instrument with three mirrors clamped together, which when fitted over the lens of the camera would reflect and fracture the image. Pound called this instrument a “Vortoscope” and the resulting photographs “Vortographs”. Although he made just 18 Vortographs in a month, they are among the most remarkable images of early 20th century photography. In 1917 he had a show of Vortographs and paintings at the Camera Club in London. Ezra Pound described his new style as Post-Impressionist. His combination of second-rate paintings and unusual photos received mixed reviews. Particularly Stieglitz did not like Coburn’s new imagery and rejected several prints to be part of a show that he was putting together. He was inducted into Mawddach Masonic Lodge Number.1988 in Barmouth on June 18, 1919. He remained a member until his resignation on September 28, 1961. Coburn was more involved in the Freemasons and earned the title of Royal Arch Mason. He joined the Societas Rosicruciana, and began to study metaphysical subjects. He would eventually devote his entire life to these studies and forgo photography in favor of them. In 1922 Coburn briefly returned to his roots when he published More Men of Mark, a second book of portraits he had taken more than 10 years earlier. The volume featured previously unpublished photos of subjects such as Pound, Thomas Hardy and Frank Harris, Joseph Conrads, Israel Zangwill, Joseph Conrads, and Edmund Dulac.Spiritual devotion (1923-1930)
- 1.4 Later life (1931-1966) By 1930, Coburn had almost lost all interest in photography. He decided that his past was of little use to him now, and over the summer he destroyed nearly 15,000 glass and film negatives – nearly his entire life’s output. He also donated his large collection of historical and contemporary photographs to the Royal Photographic Society in the same year. He wrote his last letter of support to Stieglitz a year later, and he took very few photographs thereafter. Ironically, Coburn was elected Honorary Fellow to the Royal Photographic Society just as he was taking a complete break from photography. Coburn, who had lived in England for over 20 years, finally became an English subject in 1932. In 1945 he moved from his house in Harlech, North Wales to Rhos-on-Sea, Colwyn Bay, on the north coast of Wales. He lived there the rest of his life. Edith, his wife, died October 11, 1957. This was their 45th anniversary. Coburn was killed in his North Wales home on November 23, 1966. 6 Reviews Alvin Langdon Coburn (FUNDACION MAPFR)
- 1.5 Alvin Langdon Coburn: Symbolist Photographer (Aperture Monograph)
- 1.6 Alvin Langdon Coburn: Photographs 1900-1924
- 1.7 Alvin Langdon Coburn - Pictorialist Photography - Pictorialism
- 1.8 3dRose Vortograph of Ezra Pound, 1917 by Alvin Langdon Coburn-Pillow Case, 16 by 16" (pc_160840_1)
- 1.9 Mark Twain. With Photographs by Alvin Langdon Coburn
- 1.10 Alvin Langdon Coburn, Photographer
- 1.11 3dRose Vortograph of Ezra Pound, 1917 by Alvin Langdon Coburn - Face Covers (fc_160840_3)
- 1.12 3dRose BLN Vintage Photographs of History and People 1800s - 1900s - The House of a Thousand Windows, New York City, 1912 by Alvin Langdon Coburn City Scene from The Air - Face Masks (fm_160842_3)
- 1.13 The Portrait Of A Lady
Life
Childhood (1882-1899)
it didnt come home
Coburn was born on June 11, 1882, at 134 East Springfield Street in Boston, Massachusetts, to a middle-class family. His father, who had established the successful firm of Coburn & Whitman Shirts, died when Alvin was seven. After that he was raised solely by his mother, Fannie, who remained the primary influence in his early life, even though she remarried when he was a teenager. In his autobiography, Coburn wrote: “My mother was a remarkable woman of very strong character who tried to dominate my life…It was a battle royal all the days of our life together.”
The family visited their maternal uncles in Los Angeles in 1890, where they gifted him a 4×5 Kodak camera. He immediately fell in love with the camera, and within a few years he had developed a remarkable talent for both visual composition and technical proficiency in the darkroom. When he was 16 years old, in 1898, he met his cousin F. Holland Day, who was already an internationally known photographer with considerable influence. Day saw Coburn’s potential and mentored him, encouraging him to pursue photography as a profession.
His mother and he left the United States for London at the end of 1899, where they met Day. The Royal Photographic Society invited Day to select prints from American photographers for an exhibit in London. He brought more than a hundred photographs with him, including nine by Coburn – who at this time was only 17 years old. Coburn made a huge first step in his career with the support of his cousin.
Last update 2021-08-06