The first decade of the twentieth century saw Coburn establish himself as a photographer of international stature. In 1903 his first one-man exhibition at the prestigious Camera Club of New York was praised by Alfred Stieglitz, and in 1904 he was to embark upon the series of portraits of English authors and artists which was to become the basis of his book Men of Mark, (1913). By the end of this decade the young man pictured above had achieved memorable studies of leading figures in the arts such as George Bernard Shew, Hilaire Belloc, Mark Twain, Henry James and Auguste Rodin.