Louis Stettner, first time in Spain at Fundación MAPFRE
04/06/2023.
PHotoESPAÑA 23. [MAD] Spain 31.05 > 27.08.2023
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
The Louis Stettner exhibition constitutes the largest retrospective of this American photographer to date and is also the first time that his work has been presented in Spain at Fundación MAPFRE, at Paseo de Recoletos, 23 in Madrid, until on August 27.
The exhibition, which includes its origins in New York and Paris, its passage through color photography and his latest works, is organized chronologically and made up of more than one hundred and ninety photographs that cover his entire career and includes some images unpublished, as well as part of his color work, almost unknown until now.
His work covers a multitude of subjects, from almost empty urban environments to bustling scenes in the New York subway, the routine of workers and laborers during their workday, or the mountainous landscapes of the French massif of the Alpilles, already in its last period.
The exhibition, which includes its origins in New York and Paris, its passage through color photography and his latest works, is organized chronologically and made up of more than one hundred and ninety photographs that cover his entire career and includes some images unpublished, as well as part of his color work, almost unknown until now.
His work covers a multitude of subjects, from almost empty urban environments to bustling scenes in the New York subway, the routine of workers and laborers during their workday, or the mountainous landscapes of the French massif of the Alpilles, already in its last period.
Louis Stettner Tony, «Pepe and Tony, Spanish Fishermen», Ibiza, Spain, 1956. Gelatin silver image 23.5 × 15.5 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Louis Stettner Brooklyn Promenade, Brooklyn, New York, 1954. Gelatin silver image, 29,8 × 44,8 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Louis Stettner Woman with White Glove, Penn Station, New York, 1958. Gelatin silver image, 24,8 × 23,2 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Louis Stettner Commuters, Evening Train, Penn Station, New York , 1958. Gelatin silver image, 44,5 × 29,8 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Louis Stettner Concentric Circles, Construction Site, New York, 1952. Gelatin silver image, 23 × 34,5 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Louis Stettner Woman Holding Newspaper, New York, 1946. Gelatin silver image, 34,2 × 34,6 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Louis Stettner Nancy Listening to Jazz, Greenwich Village, New York, 1958. Gelatin silver image, 28,6 × 20,8 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Louis Stettner Manhole, Times Square, New York, 1954. Gelatin silver image, 46,3 × 32,3 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Lee Friedlander Assembly Line Worker, Long Island City, New York, 1972-1974. Gelatin silver image, 31,2 × 21,1 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Louis Stettner Aluminum Foundry, Soviet Union, 1975. Gelatin silver image, 33,8 × 22,5 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Louis Stettner Demonstrators on March in Support of United Farm Workers, New York, 1975-1976. Gelatin silver image, 33,1 × 22,2 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Louis Stettner Self-Portrait, Santiago, Chile, 2000-2001. Gelatin silver image, 33,7 × 33,5 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Louis Stettner Train Station Near Málaga, Spain, 1951. Gelatin silver image, 30,4 × 20 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Louis Stettner Women from Texas, Fifth Avenue, New York, 1975. Gelatin silver image, 45,1 × 30,6 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Louis Stettner Aubervilliers, France, 1947. Gelatin silver image, 29,3 × 23 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Louis Stettner Boulevard de Clichy, Paris, 1951. Gelatin silver image, 29,7 × 44,8 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Louis Stettner Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris, 1997. Gelatin silver image, 25,2 × 25,2 cm. Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate
Straddling New York and Paris, never linking himself to one of the two cities to the detriment of the other, he remained rooted in two worlds at a time when most photographers related to only one of them. In this sense, his work contains elements of both the aesthetics of New York street photography and the lyrical humanism of the French tradition.
Louis Stettner (New York, 1922-Paris, 2016) trained at the Photo League's New York school, where he studied with Sid Grossman and met Weegee, who would become a great friend of his. In Paris he met Brassaï, who became his mentor. However, despite being fully immersed in the historical photography debate for a good part of the last century, his work was not recognized as it deserved at the time, perhaps because it did not adhere to a certain style.
The exhibition, in Fundación MAPFRE, made up of more than one hundred and eighty photographs that cover his entire career, aims to alleviate this ignorance and bring the artist closer to the general public, as well as celebrate the work of an author whose photography captured the poetry of everyday life.
Louis Stettner Woman Holding Newspaper, New York, 1946. Gelatin silver image 34.2 × 34.6 cm Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate.
His experience as a photographer in World War II intensely conditioned his conception of life, so present in all his photography: a firm trust in the human being. Also influenced by his literary and philosophical readings (Plato, Karl Marx, and Walt Whitman, fundamentally) and, as we have already mentioned, by his relationship, through the Photo League, with photographers such as Sid Grossman or Weegee, who conveyed to him the importance of photography as an instrument of social change, Stettner's work offers us, in short, a vibrant celebration of life, of man's courage to fully face the adversities and benefits of existence.
With this general vision as the common thread, Stettner's work covers a multitude of subjects, from almost empty urban environments to bustling scenes from the New York subway, the routine of workers and workers, or the mountainous landscapes of the French massif of the Alpilles, already in his last period. Throughout his career, he frequently returned to many of them, especially those related to his social commitment and his concern for the underprivileged.
Louis Stettner (New York, 1922-Paris, 2016) trained at the Photo League's New York school, where he studied with Sid Grossman and met Weegee, who would become a great friend of his. In Paris he met Brassaï, who became his mentor. However, despite being fully immersed in the historical photography debate for a good part of the last century, his work was not recognized as it deserved at the time, perhaps because it did not adhere to a certain style.
The exhibition, in Fundación MAPFRE, made up of more than one hundred and eighty photographs that cover his entire career, aims to alleviate this ignorance and bring the artist closer to the general public, as well as celebrate the work of an author whose photography captured the poetry of everyday life.
Louis Stettner Woman Holding Newspaper, New York, 1946. Gelatin silver image 34.2 × 34.6 cm Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate.
Louis Stettner Manhole, Times Square, New York,1954. Gelatin silver image 46.3 × 32.3 cm Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate.
With this general vision as the common thread, Stettner's work covers a multitude of subjects, from almost empty urban environments to bustling scenes from the New York subway, the routine of workers and workers, or the mountainous landscapes of the French massif of the Alpilles, already in his last period. Throughout his career, he frequently returned to many of them, especially those related to his social commitment and his concern for the underprivileged.
More information
Curator
Sally Martin Katz.
Dates
June 1, 2023 to August 27, 2023.
- Monday (except holidays) from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
- Tuesday to Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
- Sundays and holidays from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
*The eviction of the room begins 10 minutes before closing. The last access (18:30 or 19:30) only allows a 20-minute tour.
- Monday (except holidays) from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
- Tuesday to Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
- Sundays and holidays from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
*The eviction of the room begins 10 minutes before closing. The last access (18:30 or 19:30) only allows a 20-minute tour.
Venue / Localitation
Fundación MAPFRE. Paseo Recoletos 23, 28004 Madrid, Spain.
Louis Stettner
Louis Stettner (New York, 1922 - Paris, 2016) received his first camera at the age of thirteen. Shortly after, he began to regularly visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he had the opportunity to see Camera Work magazine. Through his pages, he became familiar with the work of photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Clarence H. White, and Paul Strand, who made a deep impression on him. Soon after he entered Stieglitz's circle and thanks to the Photo League he became acquainted with the work of Weegee, Sid Grossman, Edward Weston, and Lewis Hine.
At eighteen he enlisted in the Army as a war photographer in the Pacific, and upon his return to New York, he continued to work at the Photo League. In 1947 he traveled to Paris, where he lived for the next five years and was in charge of carrying out the first retrospective of French photography in New York, at the Photo League gallery, held in 1948. During this process, he met Brassaï, whom he considered his teacher and with whom he established a relationship that lasted over the years.
In the 1950s, Stettner returned to New York, where he began working for various magazines, such as Life, Time, Fortune, and Paris-Match, and writing about photography, something he did periodically thereafter. In the late 1960s, he began teaching at Brooklyn College, a branch of Long Island University. His political commitment, which he kept active throughout his life, led him to demonstrate against the Vietnam War, and, at a time when few did, he spent five weeks taking photos in the Soviet Union.
In the early 1980s, he stopped teaching and writing and devoted himself to researching his own work. In 1990 he returned to France and began to paint and sculpt. In 2001 he was named a Knight of Arts and Letters by the French Government and during this period he began one of his color series, "Manhattan Pastoral", which he produced during his summer vacations in New York City, as well as a project with a large format camera in the massif of the Alpilles, in the French Provence. The artist died in Paris on October 13, 2016, after the closure of his exhibition Ici ailleurs, at the Pompidou Center.
At eighteen he enlisted in the Army as a war photographer in the Pacific, and upon his return to New York, he continued to work at the Photo League. In 1947 he traveled to Paris, where he lived for the next five years and was in charge of carrying out the first retrospective of French photography in New York, at the Photo League gallery, held in 1948. During this process, he met Brassaï, whom he considered his teacher and with whom he established a relationship that lasted over the years.
In the 1950s, Stettner returned to New York, where he began working for various magazines, such as Life, Time, Fortune, and Paris-Match, and writing about photography, something he did periodically thereafter. In the late 1960s, he began teaching at Brooklyn College, a branch of Long Island University. His political commitment, which he kept active throughout his life, led him to demonstrate against the Vietnam War, and, at a time when few did, he spent five weeks taking photos in the Soviet Union.
In the early 1980s, he stopped teaching and writing and devoted himself to researching his own work. In 1990 he returned to France and began to paint and sculpt. In 2001 he was named a Knight of Arts and Letters by the French Government and during this period he began one of his color series, "Manhattan Pastoral", which he produced during his summer vacations in New York City, as well as a project with a large format camera in the massif of the Alpilles, in the French Provence. The artist died in Paris on October 13, 2016, after the closure of his exhibition Ici ailleurs, at the Pompidou Center.
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