Perhaps not a name often mentioned today, except perhaps amongst the photography purists, but Louis Stettner was one of the greatest photographers to grace the medium, and his work is now finally getting the recognition it deserves with a new major retrospective exhibition and book.
Louis Stettner is published by Thames & Hudson and will accompany a major retrospective exhibition of the American photographer's work. The largest retrospective of Stettner's to date features images from his extensive career, which starting as a teenager in the early twentieth century, spanned almost eighty years.
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After picking up the camera as a teenager, Stettner quickly made a name for himself working with New York's Photo League, a cooperative of New York-based photographers who banded together to combat social and creative issues and featured the likes of Sid Grossman and Weegee.
Like many photographers of the era, Stettner's work did not fall into one category; instead, it spanned multiple disciplines, all shot from a genuine love for humankind. As a Marxist, Stettner photographed the lives of ordinary working-class men and women in their every day, celebrating the beauty in the individual and finding the inner humanity in all. This combination led to Stettner creating a vast body of work, that observed, then captured life.
His career saw him photograph around the world, where he found a particular love for Paris, enamored by the city and its people. Stettner plays a huge part in how we view street photography today, blending the grittier street photographs taken in New York, with the romanticism of Paris, which led to a style that was instinctively natural and provided the viewer a window into the lives of others.
Many of the compositional techniques we see in today's street photography, such as reflections and frame within a frame, started with Stettner's genuine love for capturing people and his ability with the camera – a true testament to his timeless work and the subjects he chose to turn his lens towards.
Stettner also shot beautiful portraits, and his small series taken of Spanish fishermen in the harsh sunlight has always been an inspiration to me personally.
This large retrospective spans the entirety of Stettner's career chronologically. From his earliest work on the streets of New York and then Paris, through to his experimentations with color, and onto his peaceful captures of the Les Alpilles landscape. The edit of this monograph should be highlighted, as it pays great respect to the life and journey of one of the great photographers.
The exceptional images are accompanied by written texts and essays from David Campany, Sally Martin Katz, James Iffland, Karl Orend, and Stettner himself, who wrote extensively throughout his career. The texts add another dimension and provide further context to the work, and its impact on the medium.
The retrospective monograph accompanies a traveling exhibition of the same name, which was shown at MAPFRE Madrid from June to August 2023 and is at MAPFRE Barcelona from June to September 2024.
Louis Stettner by Louis Stettner, David Campany, et al, and published by Thames & Hudson is available now in the UK and for preorder in the US and Australia for a September 10 release. The book is available for $75 / £50 / AU $100.
Thames & Hudson are among the best publishers of art books and the physical books themselves are never short of exceptional, in both content and quality. I highly recommend checking out the recent releases featuring the work of Man Ray, Mary Ellen Mark, and Simon Carter, and keeping your eyes open for more brilliant titles soon.
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