The Steerage
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded
ALFRED STIEGLITZ
American, 1864 – 1946
The Steerage, 1907
Photogravure on tissue
© Estate of Alfred Stieglitz / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Acquired with funds from the Board of Visitors Muscarelle Museum of Art Endowment
2012.134
Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer born in 1864 in Hoboken, New Jersey. Much of his artistic work took place in New York, and his main endeavor as an artist was to ensure that photography was considered a fine art, comparable to the paintings and sculptures of his time. He was a member of the Camera Club in New York, a group of likeminded photographers who sought to emphasize the aesthetic qualities of photography. Stieglitz later joined the Photo-Secession group and delved into his photography practice, making platinum prints with distinct compositional choices, as seen in this work from the beginning of the 20th century, The Street, Fifth Avenue, which alludes to his interest in geometry and line, evidenced by the linear street and space between the buildings occupied by the single tree.
In 1907, Stieglitz, along with his wife and children, took a trip to Europe to visit Paris. While Stieglitz’s wife was excited about the trip and felt at home sitting on the upper deck, he was less enthused and felt uncomfortable amongst the first-class passengers aboard the ship. These feelings of unease led him to take his most famous photograph, The Steerage. In this piece, Stieglitz’s development and progression as a photographer and an artist is clear. Here, he was able to communicate his own personal feelings of discomfort in relation to class lines, as well as to depict a larger societal issue of social hierarchies and introduce important formalist elements that would in turn change the future of photography and its place in the art world.
The Steerage can be initially interpreted through a formalist lens, as Stieglitz’s primary motivation in capturing this moment was to showcase the geometric relationships and abstractions that would elevate this photograph to the realm of fine art. He wanted to focus on the aesthetics and the formal composition of the scene, as well as the social implications of the clear division between the upper deck and the lower steerage. The key formal element is the white hat, worn by the man leaning over the top deck. The geometry of this hat, contrasting with the linear element of the ship itself, alludes to Cubist conceptions of art and exemplifies Stieglitz’s desire to create fine art, as well as drawing on his admiration of Pablo Picasso.
When talking about this particular photograph, Stieglitz said:
"A round straw hat, the funnel leading out, the stairway leaning right, the white drawbridge with its railings made of circular chains – white suspenders crossing on the back of a man in the steerage below, round shapes of iron machinery, a mast cutting into the sky, making a triangular shape. I stood spellbound for a while, looking and looking. Could I photograph what I felt, looking and looking and still looking? I saw shapes related to each other. I saw a picture of shapes and underlying the feeling I had about life. (...)
Spontaneously I raced to the main stairway of the steamer, chased down to my cabin, got my Graflex, raced back again all out of breath, wondering whether the man with the straw hat had moved or not. If he had, the picture I had seen would no longer be. The relationship of shapes as I wanted them would have been disturbed and the picture lost.
But there was the man with the straw hat. He hadn’t moved. The man with the crossed white suspenders showing his back, he too, talking to a man, hadn’t moved. And the woman with a child on her lap, sitting on the floor, hadn’t moved. Seemingly, no one had changed position.
(...) [It] would be a picture based on related shapes and on the deepest human feeling, a step in my own evolution, a spontaneous discovery."
The Steerage, considered the first modernist photograph, provides the viewer with a visual slice of social hierarchies: the wealthy can be seen on the upper deck, while the lower class occupies the steerage. This dichotomy is indicative of the complexities of community that have pervaded throughout history. Stieglitz was preoccupied with the division between classes on the ship during his journey, and this preoccupation is visible in this photograph, both in formalist elements and in the content of the photograph itself.
For these reasons, this photograph fits in well to the community subtheme. It shows how well-being is not consistent throughout a community and is subjective, largely depending on status and the extent to which class lines play a role in that community. It also indicates how one can be part of a community, yet still not partake in a universal sense of well-being. Stieglitz was privileged enough to stand with the first class passengers, yet could not allow himself to fully enjoy the degree of heightened well-being that would’ve been inherent in a higher status position. This piece also echoes other types of well-being - Stieglitz’s relationship with his family is significant to the backstory as well, since they accompanied him on this journey and he was dealing with a strained marriage due to his affair with artist Pamela Coleman Smith. While Stieglitz was focusing on communal well-being, his wife was probably more concerned about the well-being of their family, playing into the kinship subtheme as well.
Lastly, The Steerage embodies artmaking: Stieglitz’s attempt, and (given the fame of The Steerage) success, at elevating this piece (and photography more generally) to the level of fine art indicates the extent to which he considered the artmaking process in the creation of this photograph. He achieves the aesthetic response that echoes a theme that is repeated throughout the history of art, simultaneously creating a strong formalist composition, while also maintaining the symbolic integrity of the image. When you look at this photo, consider Stieglitz’s intentions in capturing this moment, along with how it illustrates the complexities of well-being seen across the exhibit as a whole.
Kristen Lauritzen ‘21
Similar Images (Photography)
Community
Community
Art Making
Natural World
Natural World
Related Items from
William & Mary Libraries, Special Collections Research Center
Wants & Needs: Minors in US Custody.
Call Number: Rare Book - Vinyard (N7433.4.B3775 W356 2019)
Artist: Bassis, Aileen.
Subjects: Immigrant children -- Abuse of -- United States
Immigrant children -- Health and hygiene -- United States
Artists' books -- Queens -- New York -- 21st century
United States -- Social conditions -- 21st century
Description: "...a 54 page book that explores our government's treatment of migrant children in US custody, and the recent Flores vs. Barr court decision. It's an intimate, small-scale work with pages that can be combined in different ways."--; Cover title.; Issued in an edition of 20 copies, numbered by artist.; Issued in hand cut and folded archival folder with title variant and artist signature in black marker on cover.; Pages are cut in middle so they can be opened and combined with other page parts.; Swem Library's copy is number 7 of 20 and is stitch bound with stiff paper wrappers.
Publisher: Queens, New York : Aileen Bassis, 2019
Format: 1 volume (54 unnumbered pages) : color illustrations ; 28 cm + 1 folder (31 x 14 cm).
Artist’s statement:
"Wants and Needs: Minors in US Custody is a 52 page Risograph printed book. It incorporates text from the Flores vs. Barr Supreme Court Case of 2019 in which our government argued that children in US custody didn't need such basic items as toothbrushes and soap. Interspersed with fragments of that decision, are the words, "do you want" and "do you need" along with images of young children and text of what I feel all children need and want. The pages can be combined in different ways by turning top and bottom pages."