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Joseph Steinmetz photographic collection, 1930s-1970s.
Amount:
5000 photographs
Medium Included:
Organization/Arrangement:
Numerical by Archives-assigned image number.
Restrictions:
Terms Governing Use:
Biographical/Historical:
Joseph Janney Steinmetz (1905-1985) was a world-renowned commercial photographer whose images appeared in such publications as the Saturday Evening Post, Life, Look, Time, Holiday, Colliers, and Town and Country. His work has been referred to as "an American social history," documenting diverse scenes of American life from affluent northeasterners to middle-class Floridians. Steinmetz's Florida images document the rapid development of the state and the marketing strategies commonly employed in post-World War II America. Steinmetz twice served as president of the Florida Professional Photographers and earned the honorary degree of Master of Photography from the Professional Photographers Association of America.
Steinmetz was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The son of a prominent Philadelphia businessman and a mother who studied at the Boston Conservatory, Steinmetz's interest in photography dated back to Christmas of 1912 when he received his first camera as a gift from his parents.
Steinmetz earned a degree in English from Princeton University. After college, Steinmetz traveled the world. In Egypt in 1928, he purchased his first professional camera, a Leica model B. Upon returning to Philadelphia, Steinmetz began taking candid wedding photographs and arranging them into albums as presents. This work made Steinmetz well known among elite Philadelphians who started hiring him to photograph their weddings. Through this early work, he is credited with inventing candid photo coverage of weddings which until then were only documented with staid studio portraits.
A chance encounter at a society event with Pete Marin, an editor for the Saturday Evening Post, led to Steinmetz's first consistent work as a professional photographer. Martin paid him $150 to photograph fans in the bleachers at a baseball game. Steinmetz later remarked that this job propelled him into his photographic career.
After moving to Sarasota, Florida in 1941, Steinmetz's work appeared in numerous nationally distributed magazines. He fell in love with the circus and photographed the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus for 20 years. For one of his most memorable assignments, Steinmetz traveled with the circus and produced iconic images of the performers' life on the road including the famous clown Emmett Kelly. He also worked on various assignments from the Florida Development Commission, which sent him around the state to make photos promoting tourism. Later he collaborated with his wife Lois, and the couple became noted photo journalists specializing in destination coverage of Florida and the Caribbean.
During World War II, Steinmetz served as an officer in the United States Navy where he taught photography at the Naval Photography School in Pensacola, Florida. His work there also contributed to the development of aerial reconnaissance photography.
After his death, Steinmetz' photographic collection was stored at Historic Spanish Point in Sarasota County for several years. In 1995 the collection passed down to Steinmetz' grandson Brett Arquette, who spent months weeding out more recent portrait photographs (1970s and later) and damaged items from the collection. After storing the collection at his home for 18 years, he decided to donate the collection to the State Archives in 2011 so the world could share and enjoy his grandfather's work.
Summary:
This collection of photographs taken by Joseph Steinmetz includes images of social events, tourist locations and activities, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, prominent people, and various recreation and industry shots. Most of the photographs were taken in Florida, although there are also some images from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and outside the United States.
Finding Aids:
Container listing available. 0
Additional Physical Form:
Select images from this collection have been digitized and are available on the Florida Memory web site: https://www.floridamemory.com/discover/photographs/
for detailed listing.