Flatiron Revisited
New York City, New York
2017
On our living room wall at home we have a photogravure printed from Edward Steichen’s original negative of an image of the Flatiron building that he took in 1904. On the spur of the moment while walking by, I thought I’d attempt to position myself to duplicate his image as closely as possible without looking up his image on my smartphone. Above is what I came up with after a little cropping and some treatment to make the daytime shot look more like Steichen’s nighttime shot. His original image is shown below. My guess as to the angle and position from which he took his photo was pretty close I think. I still like his better!
The Flatiron Building
Edward Steichen
1904
I would like to have the opportunity to see the print he made with gum bichromate over platinum. You are fortunate to have a photogravure print made from his negative.
Photographers today should spend some time looking at the photographs made by the long gone masters of photography. And contrary to popular opinion, there work is still very relevant today.
I have a photogravure of Dorthea Lange’s Migrant Mother; I treasure it as much as you do your Edward Steichen.
Yes, the photographs by the old masters of photography are still relevant today, although you would not know it by looking at what is being produced prized photographers of today, e.g. what you see in Aperture magazine. You can download a high resolution of Lange’s Migrant Mother (and many, many other old photos) from the U.S. Library of Congress (I think that’s the government source). I did that once, and printed it out just for grins.