The Steerage By Alfred Stieglitz

The Steerage, Alfred Stieglitz, 1907, photogravure, photography

Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) was an American photographer who was determined to show that photography was an art medium. In the beginning, Stieglitz was the editor of Camera Notes, a journal of the Camera Club of New York. However, when the club started to become more restrictive, he and some others decided to leave and form the Photo-Succession, which aimed to place photography in the fine arts category, in 1902. 

Possibly Stieglitz’s most famous piece is The Steerage from 1907. In 1907, Stieglitz and his family took a trip to Europe aboard the first-class quarters of a ship, where he felt uncomfortable and out of place compared to the other passengers. Because of that, he decided to walk to the end of the deck, which overlooked the lower part of the steerage. The scene absolutely fascinated Stieglitz. 

The photograph itself shows a layered, abstract image with a mix of human activity and found patterns of form. There is a compression of space, as he is watching the cheaper part of the ship which most likely held people rejected from Ellis Island or immigrants going back to their home countries to see their families. It is clear that Stieglitz was commenting on the issue of immigration and the “American dream” that Stieglitz’s father had carried out. Stieglitz himself was very conflicted because he sympathized with new immigrants but also did not support the admission of uneducated people to the United States. 

The concepts of found patterns of shape and compression of shape are extracted from art styles that were occurring at the same time as this photograph. In the early 20th century, cubism, art made of geometric shapes, was on the rise. Much like cubist paintings, The Steerage had geometric shapes, but they were not definite and rather, discovered by viewers over time. This similarity acted as evidence for photography as an art form; after Stieglitz, photography became more valuable and popular.

The Steerage acted as the foundation of photography as an art, reflecting the power in how the work was able to influence further events.