The Essay
"Steichen was at a crossroads and longed for a refuge where he could meditate upon his future path. In the rotunda of the Gare de l'Est a boarding call echoed the name of a town in the French countryside."
In this, the first book devoted to the Voulangis period, Michael Torosian charts the path of Steichen's early development as an artist, his ascent in the orbits of Paris and New York and the confluence of cultural, aesthetic and personal events that dramatically forged his work as a photographer.
Three Pears and an Apple, "modernity as a visual koan", is the salient image weaving through the narrative, explicating Steichen's eclectic intellect and the diversity of influences upon his work.
"Flowers, geometry, the splay of light on the rim of a cup; in Voulangis the raison d'être was exploration."