Stieglitz
began studying mechanical engineering in Berlin. By
chance he enrolled in a chemistry class taught by
Hermann Wilhelm Vogel, who was an important scientist
and researcher in the then developing field of
photography. At the same time he met German artists Adolf
von Menzel and Wilhelm Hasemann, both of whom introduced
him to the idea of making art directly from nature. He
bought his first camera and traveled the
European countryside, taking photographs of
landscapes and peasants in Paris, Italy and the
Netherlands
In 1884 Stieglitz returned to
the USA where he began to collect the first books of
what would become a very large library on photography. In 1887 he wrote his very first article, "A
Word or Two about Amateur Photography in Germany" for the
new magazine called The Amateur Photographer and continued
writing articles on the technical and aesthetic
aspects of photography for magazines
That same year he submitted several photographs to the
annual holiday competition by British magazine
Amateur Photographer. His photograph "The Last Joke, Bellagio" won first prize (see top)
The next year he won both first and second prizes in
the same competition, and his reputation began to
spread as several German and British photographic
magazines began publishing his work
