1852 TO 1934

As a child, Gertrude Käsebier dreamed of creating pictures. She would even paint with water that spilled on the floor! After she was married and had three children, she was finally able to attend art school, where her love of painting gave way to a love of photography. She opened her own photography studio in New York City, which became a great success. She was known for her photos portraying motherhood and her portraits of Native Americans. She was also a founder of the group called Photo-Secession, which was made up of fellow photographers who championed pictorialism and photography as a fine art. In 1899 one of her photos sold for $100, at that time the highest price ever paid for a photograph! During a time when most photographers were men, Gertrude Käsebier passionately encouraged other women to become more involved in the art form.

What is pictorialism? Pictorialism was a photography trend from about 1885 to 1915 where artists would manipulate their photos to create dreamier, more soft-focus images. Today we can change a photo using Instagram filters or Photoshop, but back then photographers had to develop photos by hand and manipulate them in darkrooms to create unusual effects.