Alvin Langdon Coburn was a pioneer of photography as a fine art form. He was best known for his pictorial and abstract photographs.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1882, he was introduced to photography at eight, when his uncles bought him a Kodak camera.
In 1899, Coburn accompanied his cousin Frederick Holland Day to England. He assisted with an exhibition at the Royal Photographic Society, London. The society, recognising an emerging young talent, included several of Coburn’s own images in the exhibition.
Returning to America, Coburn opened a studio on Fifth Avenue, New York. There he joined the Camera Club and met influential photographer Alfred Steiglitz. He was elected as a member of the Photo-Secession (1901) and the Linked Ring (1903). These groups aimed to project photography as an art form, drawing upon expression, symbolism, mysticism, nature, and pictorial qualities. Coburn’s work combined these concerns within urban landscape photography.
Coburn’s distinctive images were largely created through the printing process, manipulating negatives to create softer impressions. He published in Camera Work and achieved a solo exhibition at the Camera Club in 1903.
In 1904 Coburn returned to London, where he photographed literary figures such as George Bernard Shaw and Henry James, developing his skills as a portraitist. This later led to commissions. His portraiture publications include ‘Men of Mark’ (1913) and ‘More Men of Mark’ (1922). In 1906, Coburn studied photogravure at London County Council School of Photo-engraving. He had a solo exhibition at the Royal Photographic Society that year, followed by another in New York.
Coburn’s book, ‘London’, introduced by Hilaire Belloc and published in 1909, includes a number of pictorial photogravures made by Coburn through his own printing press in Hammersmith. The images include the London landmarks of Trafalgar Square and St Paul’s Cathedral as well as views of the River Thames and its bridges. He followed this in 1910 with ‘New York’, introduced by H G Wells.
Coburn married Edith Wightman Clement in 1912. He started to move into more abstract work, a trend encouraged by further trips to America. Influenced by his visit to the Grand Canyon, Coburn photographed New York from heights, with striking results – for example, his well-known photograph of Madison Square, entitled The Octopus. Coburn went on to create almost wholly abstract work, using a rudimentary kaleidoscope with mirrors.
In 1916, Coburn visited his friend George Davison in Harlech, Wales. He subsequently built a house there, leaving London in 1931. Losing interest in photography altogether, he turned his attention to spirituality. Becoming a Freemason and joining the Universal Order, he devoted himself to Masonic and spiritual practice.
He was made an honorary member of the Royal Photographic Society in 1931. He left Harlech in 1941 for Denbighshire, where Edith died in 1957. An extensive Coburn exhibition was staged at the University of Reading in 1962. He died just after another exhibition of his work opened at Colwyn Bay Library, in 1966.