Gertrude Käsebier (American, 1852-1934) The Manger Scene, 1899 Platinum and gum bichromate, 8 1/8 x 5 7/8 inches Gift of Mina Turner 74.14 A founding member in 1902 of the Photo Secession, which promoted photography as a highly expressive art form, Kasebier was considered one of the leading portrait photographers of her time. Like contemporaries Alfred Stieglitz and Clarence White, she experimented with diverse ways of manipulating the negative and final print that challenged the medium's mechanical stereotype. With textured papers and dark room techniques, she also produced images that seem distant from the photography of the day. Her works recall Old Master prints, Dutch interiors, and fin-de-siècle Symbolist compositions of painters like Belgian Ferdinand Khnopff. The madonnas, angels, and other figures in Kasebier's work were often friends and family members. As in the Museum's photograph, Kasebier almost always portrayed women as nurturing and maternal figures.

Aaron Siskind (American, 1903-1991) Martha's Vineyard 4, 1950 Gelatin silver print A native New Yorker, Siskind began photographing in 1930, working in a documentary style. While affiliated with the Workers Film and Photo League, he produced studies of contemporary New York: Dead End: Bowery; Harlem Document; and Portrait of a Tenement. In fact, the Museum has his work Showgirl, Harlem, 1937, in the collection, along with seventeen other photographs, all but two donated by Dr. Robert and Chitranee Drapkin. Around 1940, Siskind began visiting Martha's Vineyard during the summer. He photographed discarded objects and unusual still lifes including seaweed, bones, and shells. He also focused on other basic objects and subjects--natural and manufactured--and gave them new life in his works. Such photographs reflect the art form's transformative power. His preoccupation with form impelled him to move from documentary photography to powerful abstract images; his photographs of Martha's Vineyard were among his first abstractions from nature. Martha's Vineyard 4 was inspired by the impressive stone walls he discovered in the area. Reminiscent of some primitive monument like Stonehenge, the shapes here are textural. Such compositions, found in nature, but assertively non-representational, place Siskind at the forefront of Abstract Expressionism in photography.