Le Tournesol (The Sunflower) by Edward Steichen

Edward Steichen, The Young Photographer (Self-Portrait), Milwaukee, 1898, photograph, reproduced with permission of Joanna T. Steichen

Born in 1879, Steichen was a toddler when he and his parents came to America from Luxembourg. They first settled in a small Michigan town, then moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Steichen started creating paintings and photographs as a teenager. He never finished school; instead, he apprenticed at a lithography firm, studied drawing with local artists, and made photographs.