The Holland House
Alvin Langdon Coburn
Description
A native of Boston, Coburn began taking photographs as a child. He traveled to London in 1899 where he joined the Brotherhood of the Linked Ring, a British photographic society that advocated the pictorialist aesthetic. He studied photography under the tutelage of his cousin, noted British photographer Frederick Holland Day. Upon his return to the United States in 1902, Coburn opened a photography studio in New York and became known to Alfred Stieglitz. Coburn’s photogravures appeared in Stieglitz’s publication Camera Work. A fierce champion of pictorial photography, Coburn eventually split from Stieglitz’s circle as the supporters of pictorialism became divided.
Carole McNamara, Assistant Director for Collections & Exhibitions
on the occasion of the exhibition New York Observed: The Mythology of the City
(July 13 – September 22, 2003)
This image of the Holland House hotel is reproduced (pl. 15) in Coburn's "New York," published in 1910.
Subject Matter:
This photograph appeared in Coburn's portfolio New York (1910), which followed the publication of a similar city-focused body of work London (1910). In both books, Coburn published images of the respective cities, focusing on the architecture and atmosphere of the modern city. He often includes human subjects dwarfed by large structures. In The Holland House, pedestrians and carriages are seen silhouetted in the foreground, while the building's architecture fills the majority of the vertical frame.
Physical Description:
A photograph of the Holland House in New York City. Below the building is a wintery street; silhouetted pedestrians and carriages travel in front of the large hotel.
Usage Rights:
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