LOUIS STETTNER, Woman on Subway, New York, c. 1950, 13.25x9" Gelatin silver print, Printed c. 1950.

Stettner was one of the leading photographers of the Photo League, as exemplified by this subway portrait.

Louis Stettner (1922-2016) was a celebrated American photographer whose work includes iconic images of Paris and New York. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York but moved to Paris in the 1950s. As a teenager and young man, Stettner was a regular visitor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to explore its photographic prints collection. His first camera was a wooden view camera, and he continued to shoot with film for the rest of his life, even after the advent of digital photography. Stettner studied and later taught at the Photo League, until he went to Paris after the Second World War. He received his Bachelor of Arts, Photography & Cinema I.D.H.E.C. at Paris University. Throughout his life, he befriended and worked with many great photographers.

Stettner photographed Paris and New York for over 60 years, capturing changes in the people, culture, and architecture of both cities. Using both black-and-white and color images, his work documented fleeting moments in the life of the cities, moments that often cannot be recaptured. He documented the architectural and cultural evolution of Paris and New York, making his archive of thousands of images an important resource. Few photographers have such an extensive archive of both cities, one that includes historic images of each city's most celebrated landmarks and the daily lives of its citizens.

Stettner's work has an unforced, naturalistic quality to it. He was particularly interested in documenting the lives of the working class in each city, and he demonstrated sensitivity in this endeavor, photographing them with great dignity. A limited amount of his work is devoted to still life and landscape images. Additionally, his paintings and sculptures tended to be abstract, in sharp contrast to his clear, vivid photographic images.

Into his 80s, Stettner continued to photograph with great energy. He spent significant time sculpting and painting, as well as mixing mediums and painting on some of his photographic images.

CREDIT: Peter Fetterman Gallery
https://www.peterfetterman.com/artists/178-louis-stettner/biography/

Good. Mild wear. Handling marks. Edge wear.