In the early 20th century, American photography’s most influential proponent was Alfred Stieglitz, who made photographs, published the quarterly Camera Work from 1903 to 1917, and exhibited photography as a fine art in his galleries. In 1933, Ansel Adams traveled to New York City to share his portfolio with Stieglitz, and in 1936, the gallery owner offered to exhibit Adams’s work.

Over time, Adams’s friendship with Stieglitz grew, as did his lifelong friendship with Stieglitz’s wife, Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986), Alfred Stieglitz and Painting by Georgia O’Keeffe could be read as a later portrait of the married couple, with O’Keeffe represented by one of her abstractions. The portrait was taken only two years before Stieglitz died.