Difficulties stemmed from frequent spoilage and few tonal ranges. The result was an image that took on the texture of the paper and creating a more “painterly” image. Instead of the image reacting with the surface of the paper, thus producing a sharp, clear image, during the platinum process the image is absorbed into the paper. Also inspired by the controversial, but recognized Peter Henry Emerson who introduced theory on the aesthetics of photography as an art, Stieglitz turned his attention to the new platinum process. Artists who saw my early photographs began to tell me that they envied me that my photographs were superior to their paintings, but that unfortunately photography was not an art…I could not understand why the artists should envy me for my work, yet, in the same breath, decry it because it was machine-made-their ‘art’ painting, because hand-made being considered necessarily superior…There I started my fight…for the recognition of photography as a new medium of expressions, to be respected in its own right, on the basis as any other art form. Although Stieglitz worked diligently on the chemistry and technical aspects to photography, he fully believed photography as an art form. Working closely with Vogel who, by 1884, had discovered how to make negatives sensitive to all colors except red, Stieglitz had access and made use of the new orthochromatic plates. With his background in chemistry and interest in expanding the limitations of the medium and perfect his darkroom technique, Stieglitz was now able to experiment with photographic chemistry extensively. In turn, he would maintain the laboratory. Stieglitz convinced Vogel and school administrators to allow him access to the darkroom twenty-four hours a day. From that point on, he focused all of his attention and energy on photographic chemistry and artistry. As soon as Stieglitz discovered this, he enrolled immediately. Hermann Wilhelm Vogel, a well-known photographic chemist, taught at the Polytechnic. Stieglitz was captivated from the very moment he took his first images. Until he bought his first camera in 1883, he studied under physicist Hermann von Helmholtz and the chemist August von Hofman, from which he received the foundation to build on his future passion, photography. First he studied at the Karlsruhe Realgymnasium, then at the Berlin Polytechnic and finally at the University of Berlin. In fact, to finish his education, he was sent to Germany in the early 1880s to study mechanical engineering. From a prosperous German-American family that emigrated to the United States in 1849, education and culture were greatly encouraged.
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