The Scott Nichols Gallery in San Francisco presents a selection of photographs by Ralph Steiner, celebrated for his visions of life in America.
These images are among the pioneering works of documentary photography. Before he became a central figure of the avant-garde cinema of the 1930s, the American photographer Ralph Steiner trained his camera on the streets of the New World, and on the thousands of migrants arriving in America. It was through the publication of this socially conscious photography that Steiner first met Paul Strand in 1927. The two would go on to found the Photo League. Among Steiner’s proteges was a young Walker Evans, he helped him with the technical aspect of the medium, going so far as giving him a new camera.
Steiner also gained attention for his advertising campaigns in less ostensibly political magazines such as Fortune. His passion for photography as a means of artistic expression never left him. His photographs are renowned for their odd angles and bizarre subject matter, a trait common to his documentaries and films, the first of which appeared in 1929. His notable films include one of his many collaborations with Paul Strand, Pare Lorentz, The Plow That Broke The Plains, and his acclaimed 1938 documentary with Willard Van Dyke, The City.
Later, Steiner turned to writing, but continued photographing the mountains of Vermont and coasts of Maine until his death in 1986. He will be remembered as one of the last so-called modernist photographers.
Jonas Cuénin
Ralph Steiner, A Point of View, a Collection of Contact Prints
Through February 25, 2012
Scott Nichols Gallery
San Francisco
49 Geary 4th, Floor
San Francisco 94108
