Alvin Langdon Coburn
1882–1966 · United States / United Kingdom
From Pictorialist atmospheres to abstract forms.
The story
Alvin Langdon Coburn participated in American and British Pictorialist networks before exploring more radical urban viewpoints. Photographing from high above New York, he sometimes reduced the street to an arrangement of lines and surfaces. His Vortographs pushed experimentation towards abstraction. Portraits, cityscapes and optical investigations reveal a body of work in transformation rather than a fixed signature.
Understanding the work
Compare an atmospheric view with a high-angle urban image. Follow what happens to the subject when perspective, mirrors or fragmentation bring forms to the foreground.
Key works and series
The Octopus; portraits in Men of Mark; Vortographs.
Sources & further exploration
Works in collections.
10 recordsPhotographs to explore on museum and library websites, with titles, dates and processes. Each link opens the collection record and its image where one is available.
- MoMA · c. 1901
Album containing photographs, drawings and clippings
Gum, platinum, and gelatin silver prints and one ferrotype
Various Artists · Gertrude Käsebier · Alvin Langdon Coburn · Unidentified photographer · Edward Steichen
