Straddling New York and Paris, never linking himself to one of the two cities to the detriment of the other, he remained rooted in two worlds at a time when most photographers related to only one of them. In this sense, his work contains elements of both the aesthetics of New York street photography and the lyrical humanism of the French tradition.
Louis Stettner (New York, 1922-Paris, 2016) trained at the Photo League's New York school, where he studied with Sid Grossman and met Weegee, who would become a great friend of his. In Paris he met Brassaï, who became his mentor. However, despite being fully immersed in the historical photography debate for a good part of the last century, his work was not recognized as it deserved at the time, perhaps because it did not adhere to a certain style.
The exhibition, in Fundación MAPFRE, made up of more than one hundred and eighty photographs that cover his entire career, aims to alleviate this ignorance and bring the artist closer to the general public, as well as celebrate the work of an author whose photography captured the poetry of everyday life.
Louis Stettner Woman Holding Newspaper, New York, 1946. Gelatin silver image 34.2 × 34.6 cm Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate.
His experience as a photographer in World War II intensely conditioned his conception of life, so present in all his photography: a firm trust in the human being. Also influenced by his literary and philosophical readings (Plato, Karl Marx, and Walt Whitman, fundamentally) and, as we have already mentioned, by his relationship, through the Photo League, with photographers such as Sid Grossman or Weegee, who conveyed to him the importance of photography as an instrument of social change, Stettner's work offers us, in short, a vibrant celebration of life, of man's courage to fully face the adversities and benefits of existence.
With this general vision as the common thread, Stettner's work covers a multitude of subjects, from almost empty urban environments to bustling scenes from the New York subway, the routine of workers and workers, or the mountainous landscapes of the French massif of the Alpilles, already in his last period. Throughout his career, he frequently returned to many of them, especially those related to his social commitment and his concern for the underprivileged.
Louis Stettner (New York, 1922-Paris, 2016) trained at the Photo League's New York school, where he studied with Sid Grossman and met Weegee, who would become a great friend of his. In Paris he met Brassaï, who became his mentor. However, despite being fully immersed in the historical photography debate for a good part of the last century, his work was not recognized as it deserved at the time, perhaps because it did not adhere to a certain style.
The exhibition, in Fundación MAPFRE, made up of more than one hundred and eighty photographs that cover his entire career, aims to alleviate this ignorance and bring the artist closer to the general public, as well as celebrate the work of an author whose photography captured the poetry of everyday life.
Louis Stettner Woman Holding Newspaper, New York, 1946. Gelatin silver image 34.2 × 34.6 cm Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate.
Louis Stettner Manhole, Times Square, New York,1954. Gelatin silver image 46.3 × 32.3 cm Courtesy Louis Stettner Archive, Paris © Louis Stettner Estate.
With this general vision as the common thread, Stettner's work covers a multitude of subjects, from almost empty urban environments to bustling scenes from the New York subway, the routine of workers and workers, or the mountainous landscapes of the French massif of the Alpilles, already in his last period. Throughout his career, he frequently returned to many of them, especially those related to his social commitment and his concern for the underprivileged.
