"The Safeness of Standing Alone": Alfred Stieglitz, Camera Work, and the Organizational Roots of the American Avant-Garde

Abstract

The Secessionist Idea is neither the servant nor the product of a medium.It is a spirit. Let us say it is the Spirit of the Lamp; the old and discolored, the too frequently despised, the too often discarded lamp of honesty; honesty of aim, honesty of self-expression, honesty of revolt against the autocracy of convention. The Photo-Secession is not the keeper of this Lamp, but lights it when it may[.] ("The Editors' Page," Camera Work 18 (April 1907), 37)The Secessionists care little for popular approval, insisting upon works, not faith, and believing that their share having been done in producing the work, the public must now do the rest. A few friends, and these of understanding mind, a few true appreciators, this is all they expect and all they desire. (Hartmann 1904, 47)