George H. Seeley

George H. Seeley American, 1880-1955 The reclusive photographer George Henry Seeley spent virtually his entire life in his native Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Unlike many of his peers, he sought neither notoriety nor public adulation. His only extended absence was during his enrollment in the Massachusetts Normal Art School in Boston, where he briefly studied painting and modeling. Returning in 1902, Seeley became supervisor of art in the Stockbridge public schools, and later a correspondent for a regional newspaper, the Springfield Republic. He devoted himself to photography and painting, becoming a notable still-life painter in his later years. He also held a longstanding proprietary role in the local Congregational church and was an authority on birds, maintaining a landing station and recording migratory patterns for the Biological Survey, based in Washington D.C. As a photographer, Seeley turned down several professional offers that would have required him to move. He had presumably experimented with photography by 1902, when he visited the studio of F. Holland Day, who further encouraged him. The following year he received several substantial awards from Photo-Era magazine. In 1904 his 20 prints shown at the First American Salon in New York drew considerable praise, notably that of Alvin Langdon Coburn, who is believed to have introduced Seeley's work to Alfred Stieglitz. Seeley was a member of both the Photo-Secession and the Salon Club of America. Although shown and published by Stieglitz, he preferred the attitudes and subjects of small-town life over the shifting politics of the world of organized photography. T.W.F.