Art

The span of Alfred Stieglitzs life from 1864 to 1946 was witness to the most intense transformations surrounding industrialization and urbanization ever to occur in the scene of American society and culture.  Stieglitz observed New Yorks conversion from a sleeping giant of cobblestone streets and horse drawn trolleys to a vivacious symbol of the contemporary metropolis, with towering skyscrapers becoming visible icons of a new era.  Stieglitzs photographs and the wide influence of his ideas and activity on photographers, artists, writers and art institutions in the first four decades of the century characterize him as a shaping force for a new American vision of the arts and culture (AM, 2010).  One of his most famous striking and representative images is a photograph which was captured in 1907, The Steerage, part of collections at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Getty, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and what was termed as his first modernist photograph, as Stieglitz moved away from Symbolist subjects and began capturing straightforward depictions of daily life during American industrialization (The Getty, 2010, HTAH, 2010, LACMA, 2010).

Objective Photograph Description
In order to gain a full sense of Stieglitzs photograph from an objective perspective, it is necessary to view the artwork as a concrete image aside from personal interpretation.  The photograph was captured by Stieglitz in 1907 in a New York harbor by use of a 4 x 5 inch hand held camera (AM, 2010).  It was developed with Photogravure on Vellum and is 12 1116 x 10 316 inches in size.  Four years after its creation, it was published for the first time in a 1911 issue of Camera Work, along with a Cubist drawing by Picasso (HTAH, 2010).  Geometric elements are prominent within Stieglitzs photograph, with the rectangle of the drawbridge and mast, the lines of the railings and stairs, the cylindrical funnel, the circular machinery, a circular straw hat, crisscrossed suspenders, the triangles created by the edges of the photograph.  In addition to the mechanical aspects of the photograph, there are stark contrasts between the people on the upper and lower decks of the steamer.  The upper deck is known to have been reserved for higher class passengers, while lower class passengers were relegated to the lower deck, and this is obviously true of the people aboard the trip.  On first glace, it appears as if there are more men situated on the upper deck than the lower, while more women and children are stationed below.  Also, the upper accommodations and passengers appear to be more open and comfortable, whereas the lower deck is darker and crowded with machinery.  The people on the upper deck seem to be more fashionably dressed, while the people on the lower deck are dressed more shabbily.  As far as tone and focus are concerned, there is always a nice contrast in black and white photography, with the grey tones adding definition to each element of the photograph, and the lens focus is drawn to the foreground and lower deck.  Although the passengers on upper deck are hanging out in the sun, they are clothed in darker colors.  The passengers on the shadowy lower deck are generally dressed in lighter colors, perhaps because some of them are without coats and appear to be draped in white sheets or blankets.  The drawbridge across to the upper deck is light with sunshine, and the stairs leading down to the lower deck are shadowed.

Research Based Subjective Description
By delving into the thoughts of subjective viewers, it is possible to see the photograph in a variety of different ways through the eyes of others, primarily through the perspective of the artist himself.  Stieglitz was quoted as describing his experience on the scene and capturing the photograph in the following passage, after leaving the upper first class mob of the rich and wandering down into the lower steerage area

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...
(The Getty, 2010)

From this quote, it appears as if Stieglitz viewed his work from the perspective of seeing geometric shapes, the element of modern mechanic Cubism, as well as perceiving the class differences which were being formed by modern urbanization.  The definition between rich and poor was just as contrasting as the definition between lines and curves, and the picture was viewed by Stieglitz, in a way, as extremist and multicultural, in regard to its sharp tones, defined lines, and variety.

Personal Subjective Description
One of the most intriguing aspects of Stieglitzs photograph is the people sitting in the lower steerage area.  The title of the work itself points the viewer in the direction of viewing the passengers in the lower class area with a particular sense of urgency.  It is obvious that the viewer is being shown two halves of modern society, with the lower class and the upper class working together in some kind of industrial struggle.  The energy emanating from this time of powerful urbanization is directly related to how the rich were working in dichotomy with the poor, not unlike the dichotomy between dark and light, black and white, curve and line.  Within this photograph, it appears as if Stieglitz wanted to capture all of this wild metropolitan diversity within one shot and was perhaps also questioning whether or not the new world order, so reliant on diverging classes, was truly the most ethical direction for human culture and society.

Within every image is a central meaning, and Stieglitz attempts to draw viewers into his artwork in order to perceive a new modern vision.  Right or wrong, this vision is inclusive of a wide range of shapes, perspectives, tones, and characters, on an inanimate level as well as an animate one.  The parts of the steamer are moving in a mechanized fashion, the people are moving about together in tight quarters, and the diversity of this harbor scene is defined by an exploration of the parts, shapes, moods, and attitudes of the time.  It is difficult to discern the exact feelings of the people on the steamer, yet it appears as if the mood on the upper level is confident and lighthearted, while the mood on the lower steerage deck is more sullen and despairing.  In a sense, the bright light on the upper deck does justice in illuminating the riches of upper classes, and the dark shadows of the lower deck do justice in highlighting the poverty of the lower classes.  Generally speaking, The Steerage captures the image of the slave class which supports the elite, and Stieglitz brings this industrial scene to the viewer at the birth of capitalist America.  Morally speaking, there is extreme sadness wrongly generated in the lives of the people who labor at low wages, and, at this expense, there is extreme comfort wrongly generated in the lives of the people lounging in the upper classes of the new American society.