Between Amateur and Aesthete: The Legitimization of Photography as Art in America, 1880-1900

This is the first thorough examination of the last two decades of the nineteenth century, when the popularization of photography firmly took root and the debate over the medium as an art form was most frenzied. Sternberger carefully re-examines the major players of the day--including Stieglitz, Emerson, and Steichen--and broadens our understanding of the history of the medium.