STEICHEN, EDWARD

born March 27, 1879, Luxembourg died March 25, 1973, West Redding, Conn., U.S. pioneer of American photography who, with Alfred Stieglitz, was a leader of the Photo-Secession Group. His style evolved from painterly impressionism to a sharp realism after World War I. His portraits of artists and celebrities from the 1920s and '30s are remarkable evocations of character. In 1955 he organized the Family of Man exhibition of 503 photographs selected from more than 2,000,000 submitted worldwide. Additional reading Edward Steichen, A Life in Photography (1963), with biographical data by Grace Mayer; Carl Sandburg, Steichen, the Photographer (1929); Peter Pollack, Picture History of Photography, rev. ed. (1970); The Family of Man (1955), a book from the exhibition of the same title for the Museum of Modern Art. Steichen's photographs may be seen in issues of Vogue and Vanity Fair (192338).