June 11, 1882

"Why should not the camera throw off the shackles of conventional representation and attempt something fresh and untried?" These are the words of Alvin Langdon Coburn, (June 11, 1882 to November 23, 1966,) in 1916. Coburn is forgotten today but he lived at the heart of modern art for awhile. Here is how a recent article sketched that scene.

[I]t was... Pound who bestowed upon Coburn's work the title Vortographs – it was Pound, too, who wrote the introduction to his exhibition catalogue for his 1917 exhibition in the Camera Club in London, considered the first presentation of abstract photography. Pound even wrote to his own father, proclaiming that, "Coburn and I have invented Vortography. The idea is one no longer need photograph what is in front of the camera, but can use one's element of design". The exhibition was a sensation, if not a critical success.

Alvin Langdon Coburn was the first photographer to demonstrate the beauty of photographs shot from an elevated position. According to Encyclopedia Britannica:

In 1913 Coburn exhibited five photographs collectively titled New York from Its Pinnacles, showing street scenes viewed from above. These photographs, especially The Octopus, New York, display a novel use of perspective and an emphasis upon abstract pattern.

Here is an instance of Coburn's "novel use of perspective," dated to 1905.



Britannica has the final note:

During the 1920s Coburn, who had by this time moved to England, became increasingly interested in mysticism, and he abandoned the camera in favour of spiritual pursuits. In the 1950s, however, he resumed photography and produced a number of mysteriously ambiguous photographs, such as Tree Interior (1957) and Reflections (1962).