+ Expand

Dimensions: 9 1/2 by 7 1/2 in. (24.2 by 19.2 cm.)

+ Expand

Provenance: Joanna Steichen, the photographer's widow

Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York

Acquired by the present collection from the above, 2002

+ Expand

Literature: Other prints of this image:

Edward Steichen, A Life in Photography, (New York, 1963), pl. 64

Steichen the Photographer (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1961), p. 35

Joanna Steichen, Steichen's Legacy: Photographs, 1895-1973 (New York, 2000), pl. 229

Therese Mulligan, Photography from 1839 to Today: George Eastman House (Köln, 2000), p. 542

+ Expand

Notes: Steichen's Three Pears and an Apple resulted from an experiment the photographer undertook in 1921 in which he was concerned with capturing the three-dimensionality of his subjects. Dispensing with direct sunlight, Steichen adventurously experimented with various atypical lighting set-ups. Ultimately, he arranged his subjects in a tent made of blankets. The dim light in the tent's interior called for exposures lasting from six to thirty-six hours. The expansion and contraction of the camera and subject during these long exposures resulted in images that succeeded in capturing the subjects' volume as well as form. Steichen notes, in A Life in Photography, that this effect was heightened when these images were enlarged to four by five feet. Steichen's annotations, 'guide print for Compo,' on the reverse of the print offered here, indicate that it was of sufficient high quality to be used as a reference for such an enlargement. Compo Photo Services was a commercial lab that Steichen frequently used to make large exhibition prints while director of the photography department at The Museum of Modern Art.