Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) was a founder of American modernism and a master photographer of the 20thC.

Born in Philadelphia, he first studied at the Penn. Academy of Fine Arts. In 1909 he went to Paris, just when Cubism was becoming popular. Returning to the US, he realised that he would not make a living with Modernism, so he took up commercial photography, his focus on architectural subjects. He was a self-taught photographer, and learned on a $5 Brownie.

He shared a farmhouse in Doylestown, Penn., close to Philadelphia, with artist Morton Schamberg. He was so fond of the 19thC stove there that he called it his "companion" and made it a subject of his photographs (see last clip). The farmhouse serves a prominent role in many of his photographs.

He painted using a technique called Precisionist, a term that emphasised the linear precision he employed in his work. His subjects were generally things such as machinery and structures.