Georgia O’Keeffe’s husband was Alfred Stieglitz, the photographer who exhibited her early drawings. He showed her abstract charcoal works in New York in 1916, helping bring them to the attention of the art world.
Stieglitz was more than a photographer. Through galleries and publications such as Camera Work, he promoted photography as a fine art and introduced American audiences to important European modernists. His gallery 291 became a notable meeting place for avant-garde art in New York.
O’Keeffe and Stieglitz married in 1924. He photographed her repeatedly, while she developed an independent reputation through paintings of flowers, skyscrapers, landscapes, and abstract forms. Their partnership connected two different artistic media without making O’Keeffe merely an extension of his career.
The couple lived mainly in New York during much of their marriage, although O’Keeffe increasingly traveled to and worked in New Mexico. Stieglitz died in 1946, and O’Keeffe later helped manage his estate and preserve his photographic legacy.