Room Guide

Room 3
Truth and Invention: The early 20^th century

Lewis Hine used photography as a tool for political and social reform. His images of children working on the streets of New York were central to a national campaign he led against child labour. In San Francisco, German photographer Arnold Genthe created an extraordinary portrait of life in the streets of Chinatown. He published the images as a book after the whole area was destroyed in an earthquake in 1908. By the turn of the century, cameras were small enough to be used surreptitiously in public spaces. Paul Strand was among the first to explore their potential for a more candid form of documentary photography. ‘I wanted to see if I could photograph people without their being aware of the camera’, he explained.

One of the most important champions of photography as a fine art was Alfred Stieglitz, whose 1911 snapshot of a street in Paris is shown here. He helped to promote Strand, Alvin Langdon Coburn and Baron Adolf de Meyer, also represented in this room. Coburn’s portrait of the poet Ezra Pound exemplifies the studio as a place of experimentation: three shaving mirrors create a prism in front of the lens, generating multiple views of one face. In Baron de Meyer’s photograph, taken for an early cosmetics advertisement, a softly lit face is bandaged with a white cloth, achieving a surreal beauty through subtle lighting and the soft tonality of the print.

Madame d’Ora     1881-1963
Born and worked Austria
Vienna Workshop     1921
Wiener Werkstätte
Gelatin silver print
© Collection Christian Brandstätter, Vienna enlarge X22654

Martín Chambi 1891-1973
Born and worked Peru
Girl in Bathing Suit 1932, printed 2008
Señorita en traje de baño
Gelatin silver print
© Archivo Fotográfico Martín Chambi, Cusco - Perú enlarge X24728

• Other works in this room
  • Jacques Henri Lartigue
    (1894 Courbevoie, France – 1986 Nice)
    Monte Carlo,1911,6.9 x 4.7 cm
  • Au Champs de  courses à Auteuil, Paris, juin 1911 (Race Day at Auteuil, Paris, June 1911), 1911, Modern Print, 10.1 x 6.7 cm X23310
    Paris, juin 1911 (Paris, June 1911), 1911, 10.2 x 6.2 cm  X23311
    Paris, 28 juin 1912 (Paris, 28 June 1912), 1912, 12 x 11.9 cm X23312
    Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, Paris, février 1911 (Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, Paris, February 1911), 1911, 8.7 x 5.6 cm X23296
    Sentier de la Vertu, Paris, mai 1912 (Path of Virtue, Paris, May 1912), 1912, 7 x 4.8 cm X23295
    Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, le matin, Paris février 1912 (Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, Morning, Paris, February 1912), 1912, 6.5 x 4.8 cm X23292
    Paris, juin 1912 (Paris, June 1912),1912, Modern Print, 12.2 x 9.5 cm X23288
    Jupes courtes et bottes style 1915, Avenue du Bois, Paris, juillet 1915 (Short Skirts and Boots 1915-style, Avenue du Bois, Paris, July 1915), 1915, 12 x 10.3 cm X23309
    Donation JH Lartigue – Ministère de la Culture – France
  • Lewis Wickes Hine (1874 Oshkosh, Wisconsin – 1940 Hastings-on-Hudson, New York)
    Beggar, N.Y., 1910
    Gelatin silver print
    11.1 x 16.4 cm
    International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, New York. Gift of the Photo League, New York
    X22687
  • Lewis Wickes Hine (1874 Oshkosh, Wisconsin – 1940 Hastings-on-Hudson, New York)
    Man sleeping in Doorway, c. 1910
    Gelatin silver print
    11.2 x 16.3 cm
    International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, New York. Gift of the Photo League, New York
    X22690
  • Lewis Wickes Hine (1874 Oshkosh, Wisconsin – 1940 Hastings-on-Hudson, New York)
    The Mendicants, 1910
    Gelatin silver print
    12.7 cm x 10.2 cm                 
    X22689
  • Lewis Wickes Hine (1874 Oshkosh, Wisconsin – 1940 Hastings-on-Hudson, New York)
    Small Newsie Downtown, St. Louis , 1910
    Gelatin silver print
    10.2 x 12.7 cm
    National Archives, Washington, DC
    X22688
  • Lewis Wickes Hine (1874 Oshkosh, Wisconsin – 1940 Hastings-on-Hudson, New York)
    Self-portrait with Newsieboy, 1908
    Gelatin silver print
    13.8 x 11.8 cm       
    The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
    X22686
  • Arnold Genthe (1869 Berlin – 1942 New Milford, Connecticut)
    From the series San Francisco’s Old Chinatown, c. 1899
    Marketing, 26.4 x 33.7 cm X22724
    Dead to the World, 32.2 x 25.1 cm, published 1908 as The Opium Fiend   X22650
    The Toy Peddler, 34.7 x 26.5 cm                         X22650
    The Street of the Gamblers, by Day, 23 x 30 cm              X23672
    The Vegetable Peddler, 23.2 x 33.5 cm             X23674
    Arnold Genthe with Camera,33.7 x 23 cm, published 1908 as An Unsuspecting Victim  X22648
    Late unretouched undated prints
    International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, New York
  • Martín Chambi
    (1891 Coaza, Peru – 1973 Cusco, Peru)
    Señorita en traje de baño, (Girl in Bathing Suit), Cusco 1932, printed 2008
    Gelatin silver print
    30 x 24 cm
    X23745
  • Martín Chambi
    (1891 Coaza, Peru – 1973 Cusco, Peru)
    Señorita Torera, Cusco (Girl Bullfighter, Cusco), 1932, printed 2008
    Gelatin silver print
    30 x 24 cm                             
    X23746
    Archivio Fotografico Martín Chambi – Martín Chambi Photo Archives
  • Hugo Erfurth (1874 Halle, Germany – 1948 Gaienhofen, Germany)
    Maria Carmi, 1914
    Oil pigment prints
    44 x 32 cm 
    X22885
  • Lovis Corinth, 1918
    29 x 23 cm
    Oil pigment print
    X22884
    Fotografische Sammlung, Museum Folkwang, Essen
    
  • Madame d’Ora (Dora Philippine Kallmus)
    (1881 Vienna – 1963 Frohnleiten, Austria)
    Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop), 1921
    21.7 x 10.5 cm
    Gelatin silver print
    Collection Dr Christian Brandstätter, Vienna
    X22654
  • Madame d’Ora (Dora Philippine Kallmus)
    (1881 Vienna – 1963 Frohnleiten, Austria)
    Automantel aus Hermelin und Persianer (Ermine and Persian Coat), 1921
    Gelatin silver print
    22.3 x 13.5cm
    Ullstein Bild – Madame d’Ora
    X22954
  • Baron Adolf (Gayne) de Meyer (1868 Paris – 1949 Los Angeles)
    The Marchesa Casati, 1912, published in Camera Work 40, 1912, 23.9 x 18.5 cm
    Photogravure
    Fotografische Sammlung, Museum Folkwang, Essen
    X23146
  • Berthe modeling, 1918, published in Vogue, 1 September 1918, p. 42, 23.8 x 19.9 cm
    Haus der Photographie/Sammlung F.C. Gundlach, Hamburg
  • Mannequin, Elizabeth Arden Advertisement, c. 1926, 21.6 x 15.9 cm
  • Alvin Langdon Coburn
    (1882 Boston – 1966 Colwyn Bay, Wales)
    From a series of vortographs of Ezra Pound, three photographs, c. 1917, printed later, 20.8 x 15.7 cm, 20.7 x 16 cm, 20.4 x 15.4 cm
    International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, New York. Gifts of Alvin Langdon Coburn
  • Alfred Stieglitz
    (1864 Hoboken, New Jersey – 1946 New York)
    A Snapshot, Paris, 1911, 13.7 x 17.4 cm, published in Camera Work, Number 41, 1913
    Photogravure
    Fotografische Sammlung, Museum Folkwang, Essen
  • Paul Strand
    (1890 New York – 1976 Orgeval, France)
    New York (later titled Wallstreet),1916, 12.8 x 16.3 cm, published in Camera Work, Number 48, 1916
    Photograph – New York (later titled Portrait, Washington Square Park), 1916, 22.7 x 16.5 cm, published in Camera Work, Number 49/50, 1917
    The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Anonymous gifts, 1966
    Published in Camera Work, Number 49/50, 1917:
    Photograph – New York(later titled Man in a Derby Hat, New York), 1916, 22.6 x 17.1 cm
    Photograph – New York(later titled Blind Woman, New York), 1916, 22.6 x 16.7 cm 
    Photograph – New York(later titled Woman Wearing Hat, New York), 1916, 23.6 x 17.1 cm
    The RPS collection at the National Media Museum. Purchased with the assistance of the Art Fund
    All prints are photogravures