Art & culture
Edward Steichen’s The Flatiron and the crafted color photograph
Steichen combined gum bichromate and platinum printing to render a New York skyscraper at twilight.
Edward Steichen’s The Flatiron is not a straightforward color snapshot. Made in 1904 and printed in 1909, it used a layered gum bichromate process over platinum, showing how early art photographers actively shaped color and tone in the print.
A modern building treated as art
The Met describes the 22-story Flatiron Building as newly completed when Steichen photographed it. The skyscraper rises above Madison Square and pushes beyond the top of the picture, making the modern city itself the subject.
The museum’s example is a gum bichromate print over platinum. Steichen added pigment in layers using gum arabic and potassium bichromate, producing a color image whose effect differs from later one-step color film.
Evidence: Museum collection record
A series of print variations
The Met holds three versions of The Flatiron in different tones. Their differences show that a photograph could be treated as a handmade object, with color and surface chosen to produce a specific mood.
Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz selected the work for the 1910 International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography in Buffalo. The exhibition included 600 photographs and represented a major public argument for photography as fine art.
Evidence: Museum collection record
Printing as authorship
The photograph’s history includes both the 1904 exposure and later 1909 print. Recognizing these dates lets viewers distinguish the moment recorded from the crafted object displayed in a museum.
The subject links indirectly to booth aesthetics: both can use color and framing to shape a portrait’s mood, yet Steichen’s gum-platinum layers were a deliberate art-print process, not an automatic booth output.
Evidence: Museum collection record
Sources & further reading
Sources for the specific facts and product descriptions above. Our worked examples, interpretations and practical suggestions are original editorial guidance.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Edward J. Steichen, The FlatironMuseum collection record