By Edward Jean Steichen. Edward Jean Steichen (March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was an American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator. Steichen's photos of gowns designed by couturier Paul Poiret in the magazine Art et Décoration in 1911 are regarded as the first modern fashion photographs ever published. He was a photographer for the Condé Nast magazines Vogue and Vanity Fair from 1923–1938