Which photographer’s 1920s portraits helped make Georgia O'Keeffe a modern-art celebrity?

Alfred Stieglitz’s 1920s portraits helped make Georgia O'Keeffe a modern-art celebrity.

Alfred Stieglitz photographed O'Keeffe extensively, especially during the 1920s, producing hundreds of portraits and studies of her hands, face, body, and clothing. These photographs were exhibited and circulated as part of the public presentation of her identity as an artist.

Stieglitz was not only her photographer. He was also her husband, an influential gallery owner, and one of the strongest early promoters of her work. His photographs helped shape how audiences encountered O'Keeffe, although they also encouraged interpretations that focused on her body rather than solely on her paintings.

Other modernist photographers, including Paul Strand and Edward Weston, also portrayed artists and modern subjects. The large, sustained photographic record of O'Keeffe, however, is especially associated with Stieglitz.