The Steerage

This straightforward scene from contemporary life is proclaimed as Stieglitz’s first Modernist photograph—a work that stands in stark contrast to his previous painterly photographic renderings of Symbolist subjects. Employing a compressed composition, Stieglitz portrays the densely packed lower decks of a ship, or steerage. Created at a significant moment of migration to the United States, the image has been interpreted as a cultural document of struggling European newcomers. However, as Stieglitz actually took the photograph on a steamer heading from New York to Germany, these passengers may be immigrants who were denied entry to the United States and/or various foreign artisans and workers returning to their home countries.