In June 1907, Alfred Stieglitz was travelling to Europe with his wife and daughter where his first destination was Paris. During the journey Stieglitz took a photograph of passengers on the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II. 1 He gave the title of the image The Steerage. Stieglitz probably captured this photo when the ship anchored in Plymouth 2 after he tried to escape from the first-class atmosphere as he explained that: “I avoided seeing faces that would give me the cold shivers, yet those voices and that English.” 3 The Steerage is about the truth, it’s about the machine, and it’s about immigrants. It became alive in this photograph while before he took it, he wondered could he have made this photograph into live. 4

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Alfred Stieglitz walked to the end of the deck and looked down to the lower deck of the steerage. There were men, women, and children, chatting to each other, and on the right-hand side, there was a narrow stairway towards the upper deck of the steerage. Besides, on the left, there was a gangway bridge connected to the upper deck, which was clean and bright when the sun reflected on it and behind the gangway was a gigantic leaning funnel. On the upper deck there were crowded passengers standing around the deck, but what impressed Stieglitz was a young man with a straw hat. His face was looking down to the lower deck, watching women and children. This whole scene fascinated Stieglitz enough, and he did not hesitate to walk back to grab his camera and came back to capture this moment. 5 According to Stieglitz who explained this moment: “the common people, the feeling of ship and ocean and sky and the feeling of release that I was away from the mob called the rich”. 6

Two parts

If the viewers look to this photograph roughly, they could say it contains two pictures in one. Still, if they look at the picture more carefully, they will easily find the story and connection of the image. Stieglitz used the gangway bridge, large funnel and stairway to shape the primary form of geometric exploration. In contrast, Stieglitz himself noted: “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.” 7 In the photograph was divided into two parts, the passengers from the lower deck and the upper deck, both of them connected by objects from the ship. A beam and a gangplank separated the upper and lower deck, but it also formed an intersection point in the middle of the photograph. The gangplank was connected with a shaft, and it was bevel from the right-hand side crossing to the left-hand side of the frame. This effect leads the viewer’s eye-line to the middle of the photograph, and this created the picture to be more dimensional.

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Depth of field

Moreover, Stieglitz had composed the image with the diagonal effect, which was the gangway bridge and with this playful element, it caused unusual angles. In contrast, on the right of the frame, Stieglitz decided to take an incomplete ladder, which the viewer can only see part of it. The angle and shape produce the intersection and created depth of field. Stieglitz composed the photograph by using an object from the ship formed of subjects, which was the passengers, especially the man with a straw hat.
In that time, Graflex cameras were easy to use and served many purposes as the sizes included a 5 by 7, 4 by 5, and a 31⁄4 by 41⁄4, so it was convenient to bring wherever you go.8 Stieglitz had chosen the Graflex camera to capture this image, and overall, the picture was captured with detail and high resolution. The photographer focused on the man with a straw hat while the group of people behind him was blurred. The picture had a clear, bright contrast with dark tone clothes. There were no blind spots except for one, which was the background of the lower deck. The contrast of the background made women and child wearing white clothes look more distinguished.

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Symbolist autobiography

According to Hoffman (2004), who quoted the well-known critic Allan Sekula, commented The Steerage being: “pure symbolist autobiography” and pointed out that Stieglitz produced intersection of the two worlds. Stieglitz spots a young man with a straw hat as an observer while Stieglitz himself also as a spectator, observing the passengers from the steerage.9 Furthermore, it could be parallel worlds between the first class where he and his family were and second class where he took this photograph. Both classes shared the same ship but were divided by living space area.

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Lewis Hine

Many people have interpreted The Steerage as a remarkable work by famous photographer, comparing it to Lewis Hine, with his series about the New York immigrants at Ellis Island. 10 However, the truth is The Steerage was not taken in New York but practically on the way to Europe. Lewis Hine showed in his photographs immigrants from Europe in contrast with Stieglitz’s photograph, which depicts the failure of immigrants. Many of the passengers were returning to Europe after American immigration ejected their enquiry, which might be because of the financial or health requirement problems. It is symbolic that people from the first class were looking down to the lower deck, observing the unfortunate passenger returning home.11 Referring to Hoffman’s (2004) mentions, Stieglitz’s noted that: “You may call this a crowd of immigrants . . . To me it is a study in mathematical line, in balance, in a pattern of light and shade”. 12 Whatever it is that Stieglitz wants to explore, either composition or content of the passenger, one thing it comes along with is his own vision about the truth. 13 He expressed a moment in time and captured a moment of life. He expressed his personal feeling by using the camera as a medium. The Steerage did not appear in any exhibition or published to the public until October 1911.

‍The Steerage first appeared to public eyes in Camerawork, and a few years later after his voyage, Stieglitz printed the photograph in the magazine 291 in 1915.14 The Steerage received favourable comment from the critics. The picture obtained both formal elements and symbolic qualities. The Steerage undoubtedly was one of the most famous and most noteworthy photographs done by Stieglitz.

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Notes

1 Ann Thomas, American Photographs 1900-1950, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 2011. pp. 150-151.
2 Ann Thomas, American Photographs 1900-1950, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 2011. pp. 150-151.
3 Richard Whelan and Sarah Greenough, Stieglitz On Photography His Selected Essays and Notes, Aperture, N.A. pp. 194.
4 “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 that the feeling I had about life.” Katherine Hoffman, Stieglitz A Beginning Light, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2004. pp. 234.
5 Jason Francisco and Elizabeth Anne McCauley, The Steerage and Alfred Stieglitz, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, University of California Press, 2012. pp. 5-10.
6 Richard Whelan and Sarah Greenough, Stieglitz On Photography His Selected Essays and Notes, Aperture, N.A. pp. 195.
7 Katherine Hoffman, Stieglitz A Beginning Light, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2004. pp. 233- 234.
8 Richard Whelan and Sarah Greenough, Stieglitz On Photography His Selected Essays and Notes, Aperture, N.A. pp. 197. 9 Katherine Hoffman, Stieglitz A Beginning Light, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2004. pp. 237.
10 Katherine Hoffman, Stieglitz A Beginning Light, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2004. pp. 237.
11 Richard Whelan and Sarah Greenough, Stieglitz On Photography His Selected Essays and Notes, Aperture, N.A. pp. 197.
12 Katherine Hoffman, Stieglitz A Beginning Light, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2004. pp. 237.
13 Marius De Zayas, ‘1907, Stieglitz in the photograph which we publish in the present number of “291” under the title “The Steerage”’, 291, Sep.-Oct., No. 7/8, 1915, pp. 1, 3-4. 14 Katherine Hoffman, Stieglitz A Beginning Light, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2004. pp. 237.

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References

Ann Thomas, American Photographs 1900-1950, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 2011.

Dorothy Norman, Alfred Stieglitz An American Seer, New York, Aperture, 1990. Jason Francisco and Elizabeth Anne McCauley, The Steerage and Alfred Stieglitz,

Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, University of California Press, 2012.

Katherine Hoffman, Stieglitz A Beginning Light, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2004.

Naomi Rosenblum, A World History of Photography. New York, Abbeville Press, 1997.

Richard Whelan and Sarah Greenough, Stieglitz On Photography His Selected Essays and Notes, Aperture, N.A.

Marius De Zayas, ‘1907, Stieglitz in the photograph which we publish in the present number of “291” under the title “The Steerage”’, 291, Sep.-Oct., No. 7/8, 1915, pp. 1, 3-4.

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