On both sides of the Atlantic, fine art photographers sought to make pictures that stood in contrast to commercial studios, industrial documentarians, and Sunday snapshooters. Karl Struss was a member of the Photo-Secession—a dynamic group of fine-art photographers that sought to assert the artistic soul of the medium at the turn of the century under the leadership of the photographer, gallerist, and publisher Alfred Stieglitz. The Photo-Secessionists built their aesthetics off traditional artistic media and pursued technical mastery of photographic processes.