Camera Work - Design and Production

Design and Production

Stieglitz was determined from the start that Camera Work would be the finest publication of its day. He asked Edward Steichen to design the cover, a simple gray-green background with the magazine’s title, acknowledgement of Stieglitz’s editorial control and issue number and date in an Art Nouveau-style typeface created especially by Steichen for the journal. Even the advertisements at the back of each issue were creatively designed and presented, often by Stieglitz himself. Eastman Kodak took the back cover of almost every issue, and at Stieglitz’s insistence they used the same typeface Steichen had designed for the cover.

Gravures were produced from the photographers' original negatives whenever possible or occasionally from the original prints. If the gravure came from a negative this fact was noted in the accompanying text, and these gravures were then considered to be original prints.

Stieglitz, always a perfectionist, personally tipped in each of the photogravures in every issue, touching up dust spots or scratches when necessary. This time-consuming and exhausting work assured only the highest standards in every copy but sometimes delayed the mailing of the issues since Stieglitz would not allow anyone else to do it. The visual quality of the gravures was so high that when a set of prints failed to arrive for a Photo-Secession exhibition in Brussels, a selection of gravures from the magazine was hung instead. Most viewers assumed they were looking at the original photographs.

Before the first issue was even printed, Stieglitz received 68 subscriptions for his new publication. With his typical extravagant aesthetic taste and unwillingness to compromise, Stieglitz insisted that 1000 copies of every issue be printed regardless of the number of subscriptions. Under financial duress he reduced the number to 500 for the final two issues. The annual subscription rate at the start was US$4, or US$2 for single issues.