Photographer and curator Edward Steichen was born in Bivange, Luxembourg. He came to the United States with his mother in 1881, the year following his father’s arrival in Chicago where the family lived until 1889. The Steichen family moved to Milwaukee, where Edward became an apprentice lithographer and first developed an interest in photography, leading to his collaboration with Alfred Stieglitz whom he met in New York in 1900. In 1903, Stieglitz began publishing The Camera Work, a quarterly journal celebrated for its photogravure reproductions of the work of world-renowned photographers. Through The Camera Work, Stieglitz aimed to establish photography as an art form in its own right. It is no coincidence that Edward Steichen’s work dominated the journal throughout its fifteen year history.

Steichen created the first modern fashion photographs, and later commanded the Photographic Division of the American Expeditionary Forces, documenting American participation in World War I. In the inter-war years, Steichen worked for Condé Nast Publications, particularly for Vogue and Vanity Fair, as well as for leading advertising agencies. He was widely regarded as the most famous and most highly paid photographer in the world.

During World War II, Steichen directed Naval Aviation Photographic Unit, and after the war, he headed the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He died at his farm in Redding, Connecticut, where he had lived since 1928.