Artist Bio: Gertrude Kasebier was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on May 18, 1852. Guided by Alfred Stieglitz into the “Photo Secession” movement, she has made her mark on photography with a keen eye for the feminine and domestic in pictorial photography. In 1864 Gertrude’s family relocated to Brooklyn, New York. She was married in 1874. From 1889-1896 she was a homemaker, after which she studied painting at the Pratt Institute. Soon she shifted to photography and was quickly recognized for her unique imagery. He had her first solo exhibition in 1896 at the Boston Camera Club. She then opened her own studio in New York City a year later. She appeared in numerous magazines, was featured in the first issue of Camera Work, and had a number of show on the East coast. Kasebier was as interested in promoting photography to a fine art as Stieglitz was. She became one of the founding members of the “Photo Secession” movement in 1906, along with Edward Stiechen and Clarence H. White. In 1916, she openly broke with Stieglitz due to his shifting ideals of photographic practice and co-founded the Pictorial Professional Photographers of America organization with Clarence H. White. He also co-founded the Women’s Federation of the Photographer’s Association of America. She closed her photo studio sometime in 1927 and was featured in a retrospective at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences in 1929. She died five years later, still residing in New York City. Image Information: Gertrude Kasebier took up photography after her children were gone. Children, women, and domestic family life were the themes she dealt with great exclusivity. This image of a woman silhouetted by a window with lovely dappled lighting, exemplifies the pictorialist photographer's ideal. Signature techniques of the photo secessionists are used in this photograph, Soft light, strong diagonals, and softer focus than the "straight photographs" that would become popular in the coming decades.

Sarah C. Andersen, the artist behind the “Sarah's Scribbles” web-comic, recently illustrated a short series titled "7 Ways Your Relationship Changes Over Time!" If you loved her comic, then be sure to check out this latest offering