1868 – 1961
Jane Reece was known for her leadership in establishing photography as a fine art form, fostering innovative uses of paper and printing techniques, and exploring creative uses of the camera. She worked in the Pictorialist style and frequently exhibited her haunting and lyrical photographs at the Dayton Art Institute as well as nationally and internationally. She was largely self-taught, but incorporated techniques used by Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston. Reece won many awards for her work, including becoming the first woman portraitist to be admitted to the Photographers Association of America. Her portrait work chronicles the important figures of her time, both native Daytonians and important visitors, among them Helen Keller, Robert Frost, Leopold Stokowski and the daughters of President Woodrow Wilson. Besides her own prominence as a
photographer, Reece fostered all the arts including dance, music, poetry and the visual arts in general by allowing her home studio to be used as an artists’ meeting place.