Edward Steichen. Isadora Duncan at the Portals of the Parthenon, 1921. Digital image courtesy of the George Eastman Museum © 2019 The Estate of Edward Steichen / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
"His only tools were the photographs and his belief in man's inherent goodness. He had no weapons other than a single-minded courage to state the truth as he understood it." ~ Wayne Miller
This educational website has been created to help the public locate general information related to one of the great 20th century American photographers, as well as direct researchers and independent scholars to written information and visual images and materials located at museums and research institutions in the United States and abroad. Please contact our website manager at info@edwardsteichen.com if you cannot find what you are looking for. We welcome suggestions and additions, and are happy to correct errors and omissions.
Steichen prints are for sale via the Estate’s partnership with Condé Nast, and other partnering institutions are noted throughout. Special thanks to the George Eastman Museum, which curates all of Steichen's negatives and glass plates as well as an extensive collection of important prints. Note: Permissions to reproduce Steichen images must be made through the Artists Rights Society. Please see Permissions and Legal for additional information.
Edward Steichen™ is a trademark of the Estate of Edward Steichen.
Edward Steichen and the Garden
A long-awaited book by Sarah Anne McNear about the pioneering Luxembourg/American photographer, Edward Steichen, and his long gardening and horticultural journey from earliest childhood to great old age. Lavishly illustrated with paintings, photographs and illustrations by Steichen, his second wife, Dana Steichen, and fellow artists and friends. Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and independent bookstores as of March 10, 2026.
Edward Steichen’s
lifelong friendship with Auguste Rodin.
In 1901, when the great French sculptor was in his early sixties, Rodin invited a young twenty-two year old artist by the name of Éduard Steichen to visit him at his home and studio in Meudon, a neighborhood of Paris. At their first meeting, Rodin took a deep and immediate liking to the young artist and invited him to stay for dinner. After dinner, Steichen showed Rodin his portfolio, which so impressed the sculptor that he gave Steichen free access to his home and studio whenever he wanted to photograph anything he liked.
Over the years the two became very close, and Rodin took the young Steichen under his wing, becoming a lifelong mentor and friend. Steichen always called him "Maître." Rodin called him "Mon fils," and Steichen would name his second daughter, Kate Rodina, in honor of his mentor. The Musée Rodin in Paris has an extensive collection of the letters Steichen wrote to Rodin, one of which is shown in this post. Steichen would go on to make several extraordinary portraits of Rodin, perhaps the most famous being the sculptor with his masterpieces 'The Thinker' and 'Monument to Victor Hugo,' which Steichen created by combining two negatives into one, to create a unique vision of Rodin and his work. His photograph of Rodin's controversial statue of Balzac 'The Open Sky' is another magnificent Steichen image. The father-son relationship between the two men remained loving and strong until Rodin's death in 1917.
Images. Top right. Edward Steichen. "Rodin, Monument a Victor Hugo and Le Penseur." Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais. 1905. Above left. Letter from Edward Steichen to Auguste Rodin 1901. Courtesy Musée Rodin. @museerodinparis Above right. Edward Steichen. "The Open Sky, 11pm" 1908. Courtesy Musée Rodin. All images © 2023 The Estate of Edward Steichen / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
The Flatiron Building
Steichen's iconic image of the Flatiron Building was taken in 1904, just two months after the construction of the building was completed, and shows a mist and rain-soaked city in the midst of architectural and cultural transformation. The complex painterly method Steichen painstakingly used involved taking a platinum print of the image and overlaying it with a light sensitive solution of gum arabic and potassium bichromate tinted with water colors. The print was then reexposed and developed by rinsing in a water bath. Since this complex process can be variable in both color and density due to the second printing, no two copies will ever be the same. Therefore, each of the three Flatirons in existence is slightly different one from another, and each is unique. There are two prints of the Flatiron in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. An auction record for the third print was set on November 9, 2022 when it sold for $11.84 million.
Image: Edward Steichen, The Flatiron. 1904. © 2022 The Estate of Edward Steichen / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
