It was an ordinary day. Passed the entrance to the Manheim Township roller skating rink on the way home from a trip to Park City Shopping Mall and remembered that today was one of the final days of the book sale that fills the floor of the skating rink. Dropped my wife off at home and headed back to the book sale to see if I could find a few novels to read once we settle into our new home at Woodcrest Villa. I found a couple Stuart Woods books as well as a James Patterson book, two of my favorite fiction authors. After looking a bit more I came upon a TIME book titled Great People of he 20th Century. I had purchased another similar book at last year's book sale and enjoyed reading about all the people who were featured in that book, so I tucked that book under my arm with the other three books I found and headed to the checkout counter. Bill for the four hard-cover books was $8.00 which will be donated to the Manheim Township Public Library. All of the books that are for sale were donated by patrons of the library. Great way to make money to buy new editions for the library. My new TIME book featured sections in it with titles such as THE LEADERS, THE PIONEERS, THE INNOVATORS, THE ACTIVISTS, THE SCIENTISTS and THE CREATORS. People such as Charles Lindbergh, Mother Teresa, Jonas Salk, Elvis Presley, and even The Beatles all have stories written about them along with about 75 other famous people an groups. It is a fun couple of hours reading about all the famous people whom I recognize except for perhaps a half dozen whom I have never heard of before. Photographs of each person or group accompany their story. The first story I read was about one of my favorite photographers, Alfred Stieglitz. I have read more than once that photographs were little more than a novelty for years until Alfred Stieglitz developed them into a fine art. Some of his work is remarkable. When I taught photography at Manheim Township High School, part of my course that I taught featured famous photographers. Stieglitz was always one of the photographers that we studied.
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| Alfred Stieglitz |
His work to me was more than a novelty. His photography was fine art! Alfred bought his first camera in Berlin in 1883 for $7.50, perhaps a hefty price for that time in history. He did more than anyone else at the time to elevate photography from a curiosity to an art form. He was the first to photograph moving objects. His imaginative eye made him a pioneer in picturing airplanes, snowstorms, skyscrapers and clouds. Some of his protége's included Edward Steichen and Ansel Adams. His work was deceptively simple and he never used cleverness to distort his images. The final sentence in the page-long article about Stieglitz said that he taught the century to open its eyes. A truly "fine art" photographer. To me he was one of the best fine art black and white photographers that ever lived. It was another extrordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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| An early photograph by Alfred |
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