Beschreibung:

Edward Steichen (American, 1879-1973) Lot of Five U.S. Navy Images from the U.S.S. Lexington during World War II: Hellcat Goes Thundering Off Deck, Getting Set for the Big Strike on Kwajelein, A Grumman F6F Hellcat Takes Off from the Deck, In Flight and Landing 1943. Unsigned. Gelatin silver prints, mounted, sizes to 19 1/2 x 23 1/4 in. (49.5 x 59.1 cm), unframed. Condition: Loses, creases and small tears predominately to the edges, light scattered abrasions, light scattered staining. Provenance: From the artist to Bennett Wood Wright, Commander and Executive Officer of the USS Lexington, then to the current owner. N.B. Edward Steichen served as an officer-photographer in the U.S. Air Force during the first World War. This experience had a profound effect on Steichen, both in his work as a photographer and his attitude towards war. At the onset of World War II, Steichen felt compelled to document the war firsthand. He writes, "My own feelings of revulsion toward war had not diminished since 1917. But in the intervening years, I had gradually come to believe that, if a real image of war could be photographed and presented to the world, it might make a contribution toward ending the specter of war. This idea made me eager to participate in creating a photographic record of World War II." (1) In 1943, Steichen, accompanied by Lieutenant Victor Jorgensen, traveled to Pearl Harbor and boarded the USS Lexington. The Lexington was nicknamed "The Blue Ghost" due to the enemy's constant claims to have sunk it, and Steichen chose that as the title of his published narrative and photographic account of the experience. (2) Life on the USS Lexington offered Steichen an endless source of photographic material as he photographed "from stem to stern, capturing the elation and the anxiety of sailors and airmen, conveying the boredom and tension, and showing the planes and ships in battle." (3) (1) Steichen, Edward. A Life in Photography: Edward Steichen (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc. 1963) p 12. (2) Phillips, Christopher. Steichen At War (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1981) p 34. (3) Hood, Robert E. 12 at War: Great Photographers Under Fire (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1967) p 76.