Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946)
The Steerage, 1907
Large-format photogravure on tissue
Courtesy of the Leonid and Tatiana Nevzlin Collection
The son of German-Jewish immigrants, Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art advocate who was instrumental in promoting photography as an artistic medium. This iconic image, considered by many to be Stieglitz’s signature work, illustrates the immigrant experience at the turn of the 20th century. The work is an early example of “modernist” photography.
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The photograph, taken on a ship leaving New York Harbor on route to Paris, is divided between first- and second- class, separated by the sharp diagonal of the suspended walkway. It remains unclear whether the immigrants on the ship were denied entry to the US – as many were, due to disease or lack of financial means – or if they were leaving willingly, having become disillusioned with the country they had believed would change their fate.
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Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, to German Jewish immigrant parents, Stieglitz and his family moved to Berlin in 1881, as his father believed Germany would provide a better education for his children. Stieglitz, who was in his second year at City College in New York City, enrolled in the mechanical engineering program in Berlin, where he also began to experiment with photography, becoming adept at its technical process. Returning to New York in 1890, Stieglitz began photographing his changing urban environment, focusing on the people, buildings, and industry that had yet to be accepted as subjects of artistic photography.
The Steerage epitomizes Stieglitz’s urban straight style of photography, which emphasized clarity of detail and photography’s ability to capture reality. Taken on a large ship bound for Paris, the photograph is evenly divided between the upper, or first-class, and lower, or steerage, decks of the ship, separated by the sharp diagonal of the suspended walkway. Both decks are crowded with people: Stieglitz was travelling on the top deck, which consisted of well-off leisure travelers; the steerage level below held lower-class immigrants returning to Europe. The question remains as to whether the immigrants are being forcibly returned to Europe by the United States government-as many were for reasons of disease, “poor moral health”, or lack of financial support in the States-or if they are returning of their own accord, disillusioned with the country they had believed would change their fate.
Furthermore, does Stieglitz’s photograph express class consciousness or is it simply an observation of his surroundings, focusing as much on the shape formed by the picture’s elements as much as its subject? Although Stieglitz stated that he felt displeasure with the nouveaux riches of the upper deck and an affinity with those on the lower deck, by this point his family was well established in the States and he was entrenched in the privilege of his stature. This photograph typifies Stieglitz’s dual interests in urban modernity and formal harmony, in this case played out through the saga of American immigration.
