ATDTDA (2): J. (P)ierpont Morgan (33.27)

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

Thanks Dave. Yielded great results:

Photographer Steichen was born in Milwaukee
in 1879, son of a copper miner and a milliner.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,738190,00.html

But, what the Churchill portrait lacked, Steichen's 1903 portrait 
of financier J. P. Morgan reflected in spades. Morgan, his red 
nose glowing like a beacon even in black and white, glares at 
the camera in what seems like barely controlled anger. Morgan 
leans forward, his left hand grasping the arm of his chair. But the 
arm of the chair is half-obscured in dark, and what shows 
appears to be a menacing dagger.

A simply stunning, spot-on portrait of a robber baron.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/galleries/essays/011101.htm

Over the eighty-six years since the portrait was taken, many 
people have wondered how Steichen got Morgan to pose 
for him with a dagger in his hand, given all the weighty 
overtones of cut-throat capitalism that conveyed. In fact, 
the “dagger” is only the reflection of light off the arm of the 
chair Morgan was sitting in.

As Steichen explained, “It is not only photographers who 
read meanings into their photographs.”

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1989/5/1989_5_78.shtml