Vintage 1904 photograph of Alvin Langdon Coburn by renowned woman photographer Gertrude Kasebier. Coburn is strikingly dressed in cape and top hat.
Alvin Langdon Coburn (June 11, 1882 – November 23, 1966) was an early 20th-century photographer who became a key figure in the development of American pictorialism. He became the first major photographer to emphasize the visual potential of elevated viewpoints and later made some of the first completely abstract photographs. By 1930 Coburn had lost almost all interest in photography. He decided that his past was of little use to him now, and over the summer he destroyed nearly 15,000 glass and film negatives – nearly his entire life's output. This same year he donated his extensive collection of contemporary and historical photographs to the Royal Photographic Society. A year later he wrote his last letter to Stieglitz, and from then on he made only a few new photographs. Ironically, just when he was making an almost complete break from photography Coburn was elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. After living in England for more than twenty years, Coburn finally became a British subject in 1932. In 1945 he moved from his house in Harlech, North Wales to Rhos-on-Sea, Colwyn Bay, on the north coast of Wales. He lived there the rest of his life. His wife Edith died on October 11, 1957, their forty-fifth wedding anniversary. Coburn died in his home in North Wales on November 23, 1966.
Size: 4588px × 6771px
Location: USA
Photo credit: © photo-fox / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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