Lot 89 R α

Dorothy Norman was born into a wealthy Jewish family and married to a New York executive. She discovered photography when she was 23 years old after meeting Alfred Stieglitz at his New York gallery and entering an affair with the artist, who was 40 years her senior. Stieglitz is considered the most important pioneer of modern American photography and helped to establish the medium as an independent art form 30 years previously. He exemplified this in his own transition from Pictorialism to “Straight Photography”. Stieglitz taught Norman how to use photographic techniques and how to see the essence of her subjects.
Norman never worked as a professional photographer, but portrayed her illustrious acquaintances, comprising the artists and literati of New York, throughout the 1930s and 40s, as well as capturing architectural motifs during her sojourns through the city. Her photographs are characterised by their clarity, precise rendering of surface details, artistic light and shadow effects and technical perfection.