The Flatiron (photograph)

The Flatiron
ArtistEdward Steichen
Year1904, printed 1909
MediumBlue-green pigment gum bichromate over platinum print
Dimensions18 13/16 x 15 1/8 in. (47.8 x 38.4 cm)
LocationMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Flatiron is a colored photograph made by Luxembourgish American photographer Edward Steichen. The photograph depicts the recently erected Flatiron Building in New York, taking inspiration from fellow photographers like Alfred Stieglitz, who had just photographed the building a year prior.[1]: 187  The original negative was made in 1904 and spawned three platinum-gum exhibition prints in brown (1905), blue-green (1909), and yellow-green-black (1904-1909; uncertain).[2]: 24 

Using different proportions of pigments in each gum process, Steichen was able to create these three unique platinum-gum prints.[1]: 187–188  The photograph's most notable variant is the blue-green version, which, according to Penelope Niven, became "widely reproduced from 1909 onward" because of its intense color contrasts.[1]: 187  The significance of the prints as a whole comes from how they showcase what Niven refers to as the "artistic potential" of photography.[2]: 15  The work is one of the best-known photographs of Steichen's Pictorialist phase.

  1. ^ a b c Niven, Penelope. Steichen : A Biography. New York: Clarkson Potter, 1997.
  2. ^ a b Daniel, Malcolm. Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand : Masterworks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010.