Gertrude Käsebier
Detail from “Self-Portrait” (1925), Gertrude Käsebier
Gertrude Käsebier (1852-1934), was an Iowa born photographer who did not begin creating art until the age of 37, when she attended The Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Despite beginning her career later in life, she would become one of the most influential photographers of the early twentieth century due to her ethereal pictorial images focused on portraiture and themes of motherhood. She is also known for her photographs of members of the Sioux tribes who performed in Buffalo Bill’s “Wild West” traveling shows. In her photographs of Native Americans she attempted to create more individualized and humanizing portraits to counter the common misconceptions and stereotyping they were forced to conform to in their performances.
“Flying Hawk, American Indian” (1900)
“Wife of American Horse, Dakota Sioux” (1900)
Only a few years after her time at Pratt, in 1895 Käsebier began her photography career as an assistant to photographer Samuel H. Lifshey, which aided her in improving her printing techniques. Determined to establish her reputation, she exhibited 150 photographs at the Boston Camera Club only a year later.
Käsebier soon rose as a prominent artist within the Pictorialist movement, mastering the art of altering her photographs using techniques such as gum printing, which can be seen in The Heritage of Motherhood (1904). Along with more traditional manipulation methods like dodging and burning, she would apply actual paint to some of her images such as Portrait of a Photographer (1899). This approach to photography as a fine art medium was prized by the pictorialists and gave Käsebier’s work a uniquely ethereal and sometimes haunting aura. She was able to use these experimental techniques to enhance the complex emotions expressed through her models.
“Why should not the camera as a medium for the interpretation of art as understood by painters, sculptors, and draughtsmen, command respect?”
— GeRtrude Käsebier
“The Sketch” (1903)
“The Heritage of Motherhood” (1904)
Her images depicting mothers and children are comparable in content and composition to the domestic scenes painted contemporaneously by Mary Cassatt. While both artists demonstrate a mastery of light and shadow, Käsebier’s painterly use of chiaroscuro differs significantly from Cassatt’s more Impressionist focus on the subtle interplay of light and color. Her photographs explore the emotional complexities of motherhood through dramatic lighting and the dynamics portrayed between the figures.
Käsebier was one of the founding members of the Photo-Secession, an influential Pictorialist group. Her image The Manger (1900) was published in the inaugural issue of fellow Photo-Secession member Alfred Stieglitz’s journal Camera Works, exposing her work to a larger audience and cementing her reputation as one of the most prominent photographers of the time. After leaving the group in 1912, she later helped to found other professional organizations.
Recently, Käsebier’s career has received attention due to the way in which she used her reputation to advocate for the collective cause of women photographers. Emblematic of this commitment was her strong involvement in the Women’s Federation of the Photographers’ Association of America during its founding in 1909, and whose exhibition policy she launched and legitimized.
“I earn my own money.
I pay my own bills.
I carry my own license.”— GeRtrude Käsebier
“Lolly Pops” (1910)
“Mother and Child” (1903)