Alfred Stieglitz and friends

The Leica—the world’s first widely successful 35mm camera—was used by countless American amateurs to make pictures with a new kind of spontaneity and intimacy. Portable and small, the camera was also used by such progressive commercial photographers as Lusha Nelson. An associate of Edward Steichen at Condé Nast publications, Nelson used the 35mm format to make a delightfully informal series of portraits of Alfred Stieglitz at his Lake George summer house.