Montsec (strongly fortified enemy position taken by the American troops during the St. Mihiel offensive), S. Étang de la Perche to S. Montsec

During World War I, Edward Steichen served as the commander of the photographic division for the United States Army Expeditionary Forces Air Service. He had begun his career nearly two decades earlier under the mentorship of Alfred Stieglitz, but by the beginning of the war, the two had grown apart due to their differing views on both the war and photography. Documenting the terrain below him from the air, Steichen embraced a degree of sharpness and clarity that was a far cry from the painterly imitation of his earlier work. This group of photographs depicting Mont-Sec (a region in northeastern France), arranged here as a graphic abstraction of the landscape, would have been highly informative for the Allies. After the war, Steichen became the chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair, and eventually served as chief curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1947–61).

For more on Edward Steichen’s work in the Art Institute’s collection visit the website: Edward Steichen's World War I Years.