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Alvin Langdon Coburn’s career in photography was quite extraordinary. When he was eight years old he received aKodak Brownie camera as a gift and that sparked his interest inphotography. He became a photography prodigywith an innate eye for composition.
At the ageof 16, he came under the influence of his cousin F. Holland Day an internationallywell-known photographer of the time who recognized Coburn’s talent andencouraged him to take up photography as a career.
In 1899, heand his mother moved to London where, under the aegis of his cousin F. Holland Day,he was at the tender age of 17 invited to submit some of his photographs to theRoyal Photographic Society in London which was planning an exhibition. His photographs were extremely well receivedand helped spur the meteoric rise in his photographic career.
In 1902 whenhe was 19 years old he returned to America and began to study with severalwell-known photographers of the time including Gertrude Kasebier. Honors continued to be heaped upon him. At the tender age of 19 he was given aone-man show at the Camera Club in New York.Alfred Stieglitz who had founded the photographic journal known as Camera Works in 1903 invited him tosubmit one of his gravures for publication which he did.
In 1904 hereturned to London to begin a project of photographing leading English artists,writers and other well-known personalities including, among others, GeorgeBernard Shaw who took a fancy to Coburn’s work.Coburn remained in London until 1907 during which he had a number ofone-man shows at the Royal Photographic Society in London. George Bernard Shaw wrote the preface to thecatalog for the show. By 1907 he was sowell-known that at the age of 24 George Bernard Shaw called him the “greatestphotographer in the world”. At thattime, Shaw introduced the phenom to Auguste Rodin, the famous sculptor whosemasterpiece was the famous “The Thinker”.On a whim, Shaw suggested that Coburn take a photograph of him in thenude posing as Rodin’s “The Thinker”. Coburncomplied and the portrait became extremely famous.
During thistime Coburn became a regular contributor to CameraWorks. The photographs offered here “Motherand Child” and a portrait of “George Bernard Shaw” appeared in Camera Works Volume 6 of the 1904edition and Volume 21 of the 1908 edition respectively.
In lateryears Coburn’s life took a bizarre turn when he became more and more interestedin mysticism and his later photographic work showed that interest. He became more deeply involved in variouscults and gave up photography altogether.
Thephotographs offered here are in pristine condition. “Mother and Child” is 18.1x14.8 cm and the portraitof “George Bernard Shaw” is 21.1x16.4 cm.They were purchased from Swann Galleries which has confirmed that theyare genuine gravures from Camera WorksMagazine.
