Alvin Langdon Coburn (June 11, 1882 – November 23, 1966) was an early 20th-century

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

who became a key figure in the development of American

pictorialism Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no standard definition of the term, but in general it refers to a style in which the photographer ha ...

. He became the first major photographer to emphasize the visual potential of elevated viewpoints and later made some of the first completely abstract photographs.

Life

Childhood (1882–1899)

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." In 1890 the family visited his maternal uncles in Los Angeles, and they gave him a 4 x 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 A darkroom is used to process photographic film, to make prints and to carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of the light-sensitive photographic materials, including film and ph ...

. 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 recognized Coburn's talent and both mentored him and encouraged him to take up photography as a career. At the end of 1899 his mother and he moved to London, where they met up with Day. Day had been invited by the

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

to select prints from the best American photographers for an exhibition in London. He brought more than a hundred photographs with him, including nine by Coburn – who at this time was only 17 years old. With the help of his cousin Coburn's career took a giant first step.

Rise to fame (1900–1905)

Coburn's prints at the Royal Photographic Society attracted the attention of another important photographer,

Frederick H. Evans Frederick H. Evans (26 June 1853 – 24 June 1943) was an English photographer, best known for his images of architectural subjects, such as English and French cathedrals. Evans was born and died in London. He began his career as a bookseller, ...

. 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. In the summer of 1900 Coburn was invited to exhibit with them, which elevated him to the ranks of some of the most elite photographers of the day. In 1901 Coburn lived in Paris for a few months so he could study with photographer

Edward Steichen Edward Jean Steichen (March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter, and curator, renowned as one of the most prolific and influential figures in the history of photography. Steichen was credited with tr ...

and

Robert Demachy Robert Demachy (1859–1936) was a prominent French Pictorial photographer of the late 19th and early 20th century. He is best known for his intensely manipulated prints that display a distinct painterly quality. Life Early years (1859–1875) ...

. He and his mother then toured France, Switzerland and Germany for the remainder of the year. When they returned to America in 1902, Coburn began studying with famed photographer

Gertrude Käsebier Gertrude Käsebier (née Stanton; May 18, 1852 – October 12, 1934) was an American photographer. She was known for her images of motherhood, her portraits of Native Americans, and her promotion of photography as a career for women. Biography ...

in New York. He opened a photography studio on Fifth Avenue but spent much of his time that year studying with

Arthur Wesley Dow Arthur Wesley Dow (1857 – December 13, 1922) was an American painter, printmaker, photographer and an arts educator. Early life Arthur Wesley Dow was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1857. Dow received his first art training in 1880 from An ...

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 The Linked Ring (also known as "The Brotherhood of the Linked Ring") was a British photographic society created to propose and defend that photography was just as much an art as it was a science, motivated to propelling photography further into t ...

, making him one of the youngest members of that group and one of only a few Americans to be so honored. In May he was given his first one-man show at the Camera Club of New York, and in July Stieglitz published one of his gravures in ''

Camera Work ''Camera Work'' was a quarterly photographic journal published by Alfred Stieglitz from 1903 to 1917. It presented high-quality photogravures by some of the most important photographers in the world, with the goal to establish photography as a ...

'', No. 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 George Meredith (12 February 1828 – 18 May 1909) was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. At first his focus was poetry, influenced by John Keats among others, but he gradually established a reputation as a novelist. ''The Ord ...

, and

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and made studies of motifs photographed by pioneering photographers

Hill A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct Summit (topography), summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally con ...

and Adamson. Six more of his images were published in ''

'', No. 6 (April 1904). In 1905 he photographed American artist

Leon Dabo Leon Dabo (July 9, 1864 – November 7, 1960) was an American tonalist landscape artist best known for his paintings of New York, particularly the Hudson Valley. His paintings were known for their feeling of spaciousness, with large areas of the ...

. Coburn remained in London throughout 1905 and much of 1906, taking both portraits and landscapes around England. He photographed

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

for ''The Century'' magazine and returned to Edinburgh for a series he intended to be visualizations of

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

's '' Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes''.

Symbolist period (1906–1912)

The years 1906–07 were some of the most prolific and important for Coburn. He began 1906 by having one-man shows at the

(accompanied by a catalog with a preface by

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

) and at the Liverpool Amateur Photographic Association. In July five more gravures were published in ''Camera Work'' (No. 15). At the same time he began to study photogravure printing at the London County Council School of Photo-Engraving. It was during this time that Coburn made one of his most famous portraits, that of

posing nude as Rodin's ''

The Thinker ''The Thinker'' (french: Le Penseur) is a bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled tradi ...

''. In the summer he cruised round the Mediterranean and traveled to Paris, Rome and Venice in the fall while working on frontispieces for an American edition of Henry James' novels. While in Paris he saw Steichen's Autochrome color photographs and learned the process from him. By 1907 Coburn was so well established in his career that Shaw called him "the greatest photographer in the world," although he was only 24 years old at the time. He continued his success by having a one-man show at Stieglitz's prestigious ''

Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

'' in New York and by organizing an international exhibition of photography at the New English Art Galleries in London. At the request of American art collector Charles Lang Freer, Coburn briefly returned to the U.S. so he could photograph Freer's large collection of oriental art and Whistler prints. Coburn became captivated with the "exotic" style of the oriental artists, and it began to have an influence in both his thinking and his photography. In January 1908, twelve more of Coburn's photographs were published in ''Camera Work'' (No. 21). In the same issue there was an anonymous article that leveled some harsh words at him:

Coburn has been a favored child throughout his career… No other photographer has been so extensively exploited nor so generally eulogized. He enjoys it all; is amused at the conflicting opinions about him and his work, and, like all strong individuals, is conscious that he knows best what he wants and what he is driving at. Being talked about is his only recreation.

The author was probably Stieglitz, who sometimes delighted in both promoting and castigating a photographer, especially if he felt the person was becoming too conceited. The criticism did not seem to have a long-term effect on their relationship, as both continued to be close colleagues for many years. In the spring Coburn had another one-man show, this time at the Goupil Galleries in New York. Soon afterwards he wrote to Stieglitz: "Printing almost entirely in gray now... think it a reaction from the autochomes.…" In the summer he visited Dublin, where he made portraits of

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

and George Moore. He continued his travels that year with trips to Bavaria and Holland. The same year,

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

The Door in the Wall and Other Stories''. A few years later, an edition of 600 copies, 60 of them signed by the author and the photographer, eventually appeared; this edition was first reissued in 2018 by the

Folio Society The Folio Society is a London-based publisher, founded by Charles Ede in 1947 and incorporated in 1971. Formerly privately owned, it operates as an employee ownership trust since 2021. It produces illustrated hardback editions of classic fict ...

. The next year Stieglitz gave Coburn his second one-man exhibition at his gallery, which by then had come to be known simply as " 291". Another sign of Coburn's prominence at that time was that Stieglitz had only given two shows to one other photographer – Edward Steichen. Back in London, Coburn bought a new home with a large studio area where he set up two printing presses. He proceeded to use the skills he had learned at the County Council School to publish a book of his own photographs called ''London''. Coburn returned to America in 1910, exhibiting 26 prints at the

Albright-Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum at 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, in Delaware Park. the museum's Elmwood Avenue campus is temporarily closed for construction. It hosted e ...

in Buffalo, New York. He began traveling extensively in the U.S. for the next year, going to Arizona to photograph the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...

and to California to take photos in

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

. He came back to New York in 1912 and took a series of new photos which he published in his book ''New York''. It was during this period that he made some of his most famous photographs from elevated viewpoints, including his best known image ''The Octopus''. While in New York he met and married Edith Wightman Clement of Boston on October 11, 1912. In November Coburn and his wife returned to England, and after twenty-three

transatlantic crossing Transatlantic crossings are passages of passengers and cargo across the Atlantic Ocean between Europe or Africa and the Americas. The majority of passenger traffic is across the North Atlantic between Western Europe and North America. Centuries ...

s he never again returned to the United States.

Explorations (1913–1923)

Coburn continued to build his fame by publishing what would become his most famous book, ''Men of Mark'', in 1913. The book featured 33 gravure prints of important European and American authors, artists and statesmen, including

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

and Yeats. In the preface to the book, he says:

To make satisfactory photographs of persons it is necessary for me to like them, to admire them, or at least to be interested in them. It is rather curious and difficult to exactly explain, but if I dislike my subject it is sure to come out in the resulting portrait . I had thought of using 'Men of Genius' as the title for this book, but
Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist. He wrote prolifically: between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaboratio ...
objected seriously, saying, very modestly, that he did not consider himself a man of genius, but merely a working author, and absolutely refusing to join the throng unless I changed it, so I told him that if he would give me a better one I would use it. 'Men of Mark' is his alternative.

In 1915 Coburn organized the exhibition ''Old Masters of Photography'', shown at the Royal Photographic Society in London and at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in the U.S. The show included many historical prints from Coburn's own 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 Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...

and

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

. This started Coburn on a path of studying

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

ideals and

Druidism A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Whi ...

. He met

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

, who introduced him to the short-lived

Vorticism Vorticism was a London-based Modernism, modernist art movement formed in 1914 by the writer and artist Wyndham Lewis. The movement was partially inspired by Cubism and was introduced to the public by means of the publication of the Vorticist mani ...

movement in Britain. Its new visual aesthetics intrigued Coburn and, provoked by his growing spiritual quest, he began to re-examine his photographic style. He responded by making a bold and distinctive portrait of Pound, showing three overlapping images of differing sizes. 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 A kaleidoscope () is an optical instrument with two or more reflecting surfaces (or mirrors) tilted to each other at an angle, so that one or more (parts of) objects on one end of these mirrors are shown as a regular symmetrical pattern when v ...

-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". He made only about 18 different Vortographs, taken over a period of just one month, yet they remain among the most striking images in early 20th-century photography. In 1917 he had a show of Vortographs and paintings at the Camera Club in London. He had recently started painting, in what Ezra Pound called

Post-Impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...

style, and the combination of "second-rate" paintings along with his highly unusual photographs received mixed reviews. Stieglitz in particular did not like the change in Coburn's imagery, and he rejected several prints for a show he was putting together. On June 18, 1919, he was initiated into Mawddach Masonic Lodge No.1988 in Barmouth and was a member until he resigned on September 28, 1961. Coburn became increasingly involved with the Freemasons, achieving the title of Royal Arch Mason. He also joined the ''

Societas Rosicruciana The Societas Rosicruciana (or Rosicrucian Society) is a Rosicrucian order which limits its membership to Christian Master Masons. The order was founded in Scotland, but now exists in England, Scotland, Canada, Portugal, and the United States. Whi ...

'' and delved further into metaphysical studies. Eventually he would devote most of his life to these studies, foregoing photography as his primary interest. 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. This volume included previously unpublished photographs of subjects who included Pound,

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

Frank Harris Frank Harris (14 February 1855 – 26 August 1931) was an Irish-American editor, novelist, short story writer, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day. Born in Ireland, he emigrated to the United State ...

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...

Israel Zangwill Israel Zangwill (21 January 18641 August 1926) was a British author at the forefront of cultural Zionism during the 19th century, and was a close associate of Theodor Herzl. He later rejected the search for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and be ...

and

Edmund Dulac Edmund Dulac (born Edmond Dulac; 22 October 1882 – 25 May 1953) was a French-British naturalised magazine illustrator, book illustrator and stamp designer. Born in Toulouse he studied law but later turned to the study of art at the École ...

Spiritual devotion (1923–1930)

In 1923 Coburn met a man who would become a major influence on him for the rest of his life. The man was one of the leaders of the Universal Order, a small comparative religious group, previously called the Order of Ancient Wisdom, and which under the name Hermetic Truth Society organized public lectures and produced the quarterly ''Shrine of Wisdom'' magazine. The identity of the man – described as being great and good in every way – was known to Coburn, but it has been kept from anyone outside of the Order due to the Society's strict doctrine of anonymity. There was something about him, however, that struck a chord with Coburn, and "Coburn's solidity as a citizen and the falling-away of all mundane ambition thereafter was due to his direct influence." Throughout the 1920s and '30s Coburn became fully committed to the beliefs of the Universal Order, which are described in ''The Shrine of Wisdom'' magazine as being devoted to "Synthetic Philosophy, Religion and Mysticism". His deep interest in mysticism, and especially freemasonry, was to occupy the greatest part of the remainder of his life. Coburn did much research into the history of freemasonry, as well as on aspects of the occult and mysticism. He presented numerous lectures based on his findings to Masonic gatherings, travelling extensively throughout England and Wales. He also took a particular interest in the ceremonial rituals and rites performed, and in their origins and symbolism. In 1927 Coburn was made an honorary Ovate of the Welsh Gorsedd, or Council of Druids, and he took the Welsh name "Maby-y-Trioedd" (Son of the Triads). In 1928 his mother died. She had been a major influence on him for much of his life, and her death was yet one more sign that his new devotion to religious interests was the right course for him.

Later life (1931–1966)

By 1930 Coburn had lost almost 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. This same year he donated his extensive collection of contemporary and historical photographs to the Royal Photographic Society. A year later he wrote his last letter to Stieglitz, and from then on he made only a few new photographs. Ironically, just when he was making an almost complete break from photography Coburn was elected Honorary Fellow of the

. After living in England for more than 20 years, Coburn finally became a British subject in 1932. In 1945 he moved from his house in

Harlech Harlech () is a seaside resort and community in Gwynedd, north Wales and formerly in the historic county of Merionethshire. It lies on Tremadog Bay in the Snowdonia National Park. Before 1966, it belonged to the Meirionydd District of the 197 ...

North Wales , area_land_km2 = 6,172 , postal_code_type = Postcode , postal_code = LL, CH, SY , image_map1 = Wales North Wales locator map.svg , map_caption1 = Six principal areas of Wales common ...

Rhos-on-Sea Rhos-on-Sea ( cy, Llandrillo-yn-Rhos) is a seaside resort and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales. The population was 7,593 at the 2011 census. It adjoins Colwyn Bay and is named after the Welsh kingdom of Rhos established there in late ...

Colwyn Bay Colwyn Bay ( cy, Bae Colwyn) is a town, community and seaside resort in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. It lies within the historic county of Denbighshire. Eight neighbouring communities are incorpo ...

, on the north coast of

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. He lived there the rest of his life. His wife Edith died on October 11, 1957, their 45th wedding anniversary. Alvin Coburn died in his home in North Wales on November 23, 1966, at the age of 84.

Gallery

File:Alvin Langdon Coburn (British - George Meredith - Google Art Project.jpg, ''

'' (1911) File:Alvin Langdon Coburn (British - Study - Miss R - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Study - Miss R'' (1904) File:Alvin Langdon Coburn - House of a Thousand Windows - Google Art Project.jpg, ''House of a Thousand Windows'' (1912)

References

External links

The official National Media Museum print website
containing many Alvin Langdon Coburn prints
National Portrait Gallery - works by CoburnAlvin Langdon Coburn Collection
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Coburn, Alvin Langdon American portrait photographers Pictorialists 1882 births 1966 deaths Photographers from Massachusetts Artists from Boston American emigrants to England 20th-century American photographers American emigrants to Wales Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom 20th-century British photographers British portrait photographers