Early Life and the Seeds of Vision Alvin Langdon Coburn, born in Boston in 1882, emerged into a world rapidly embracing new technologies and artistic expressions. His upbringing, initially secure within a middle-class family—his father establishing the successful shirtmaking firm of Coburn & Whitman—was irrevocably altered by loss when he was just seven years old. The death of his father cast a long shadow, with his mother, Fannie, be…