Getty Museum
The Steerage
Creator
Alfred StieglitzAmerican Photographer · 1864–1946
All works by this person →Alfred Stieglitz's contribution to the history of photography extends far beyond his photographic work, which he began as a student in Germany in 1883. He influenced generations of photographers, painters, and sculptors both directly and indirectly. In 1905, with Edward Steichen, he founded the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue in New York, which later became known simply
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1907
- Medium
- Photogravure
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
There were men, women and children on the lower level of the steerage....The scene fascinated me: A round straw hat; the funnel leaning left, the stairway leaning right; the white drawbridge, its railings made of chain; white suspenders crossed on the back of a man below; circular iron machinery; a mast that cut into the sky, completing a triangle. I stood spellbound for a while. I saw shapes related to one another *--* a picture of shapes, and underlying it, a new vision that held me... Twenty-five years after making this photograph, Alfred Stieglitz recalled the moment in vivid detail, no doubt aided by the information provided within the frame. He had wandered down from the first-class deck to survey the jumbled scene of teeming passengers in the steerage, or economy class, section, which contrasted sharply with "the mob called the 'rich'" that he had left behind. Stieglitz's compressed composition emphasized the closeness of space and bustling conditions in the steamer's lower-level accommodations.
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