Mary Devens (17 May 1857 – 13 March 1920) was an American photographer who was considered one of the ten most prominent

pictorial An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be displayed through other media, including a project ...

photographers of the early 20th century. She was listed as a founding member of

Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz (; January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was k ...

’s famed

Photo-Secession The Photo-Secession was an early 20th century movement that promoted photography as a fine art in general and photographic pictorialism in particular. A group of photographers, led by Alfred Stieglitz and F. Holland Day in the early 20th centur ...

Life

Devens was born on 17 May 1857 in

Ware, Massachusetts Ware is a New England town, town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 10,066 as of 2020 United States census, 2020. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield metropo ...

, the daughter of Arthur Lithgow Devens and Agnes Howard White Devens. She grew up in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

and developed an interest in photography sometime in early life. She had a strong interest in printing techniques that could be manipulated by the photographer, including ozotype,

gum bichromate Gum printing is a way of making photographic reproductions without the use of silver halides. The process uses salts of dichromate in common with a number of other related processes such as sun printing. Gum prints tend to be multi-layered im ...

and platinum printing. She mastered the gum bichomate process so well that she gave a lecture on it to the Cambridge Photographic Club in 1896. At some point before her mid-30s, Devens met Boston photographer

F. Holland Day Fred Holland Day (July 23, 1864 – November 23, 1933) was an American photographer and publisher. He was prominent in literary and photography circles in the late nineteenth century and was a leading Pictorialist. He was an early and vocal ...

, who influenced her career through encouragement and advocacy of her work. He personally submitted five of her prints to the London Photographic Salon of 1898 and was responsible for introducing her to photographer

, with whom she would regularly correspond for many years. Day also promoted her work in his lecture "Photography as Fine Art" at the Harvard Camera Club in 1900 and included several of her prints in his 1901 exhibition "The New School of American Photography." Devens traveled to Europe in 1900-1901, where she met

Edward Steichen Edward Jean Steichen (; March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter and curator and a pioneer of fashion photography. His gown images for the magazine ''Art et Décoration'' in 1911 were the first modern ...

and

Robert Demachy Robert Demachy (1859–1936) was a prominent French Pictorial photographer of the late 19th and early 20th century. He is best known for his intensely manipulated prints that display a distinct painterly quality. Life Early years (1859–1875) ...

. Demachy added several of her photographs to the important Paris exhibition of women photographers organized by

Frances Benjamin Johnston Frances Benjamin Johnston (January 15, 1864 – May 16, 1952) was an American photographer and photojournalist whose career lasted for almost half a century. She is most known for her portraits, images of southern architecture, and various photo ...

. In 1902 Devens was elected to Britain’s Linked Ring, and Stieglitz listed her as a founding member of the

. That same year Stieglitz also listed her as one of the ten most prominent American pictorial photographers in an article in ''Century Magazine''. He also published one of her photographs in his journal

Camera Work ''Camera Work'' was a quarterly photographic journal published by Alfred Stieglitz from 1903 to 1917. It presented high-quality photogravures by some of the most important photographers in the world. The goal of the journal was to establi ...

. About this same time Devens’ eyesight began to fail rapidly due to an unknown cause. After 1904 she showed only a few prints in exhibitions. Stieglitz included her work in the inaugural exhibition at his Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession in 1905. She is not known to have engaged in any photographic activity after 1905. Devens died on 13 March 1920 in Cambridge. A memorial exhibition of her work was held soon after her death in 1920 by the Society of Arts and Crafts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Devens, Mary 1857 births 1920 deaths 19th-century American photographers 20th-century American photographers People from Ware, Massachusetts Artists from Massachusetts Pictorialists 20th-century American women photographers 19th-century American women photographers