The Steerage

Photography and Media

1907, printed 1920/39

Alfred Stieglitz
American, 1864–1946

Alfred Stieglitz shot this photograph in 1907, during a voyage by ocean liner to Europe; it was years, however, before he and others in his circle came to recognize it as a defining work of modernism, showing that photography could transcend its ostensible subject to depict deeper emotions. He later described the moment when, desperate to escape the stuffy upper classes, he looked down to the steerage level: “I saw shapes related to each other. I saw a picture of shapes and underlying that the feeling I had about life.”

For more on the Alfred Stieglitz collection at the Art Institute, along with in-depth object information, please visit the website: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Photography and Media

Artist: Alfred Stieglitz
Title: The Steerage
Origin: United States
Date: Made 1907
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Inscriptions: Unmarked recto; inscribed verso, on second mount, lower left, in graphite: "125D"
Dimensions: 11 × 9.2 cm (image/paper/first mount); 31.7 × 24.7 cm (second mount)
Credit Line: Alfred Stieglitz Collection
Reference Number: 1949.705
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/66309/manifest.json

Travis, David. 1979. “Photography Rediscovered: American Photographs from 1900-1930.” Exh. cat. Whitney Museum of American Art. p. 176, fig. 156.
Gilbert. Rita. 1988. “Living with Art.” McGraw-Hill Education. p. 228. fig. 265.

Art Institute of Chicago, “Photographs from the Permanent Collection,” March 20–May 30, 1976. (Miles Barth) (Either this or 1949.847)
New York, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, “Photography Rediscovered: American Photographs from 1900-1930,” September 19-November 25, 1979; travel to Art Institute of Chicago, December 22, 1979-February 4, 1980. (David Travis)
Minneapolis, Minnesota, The Minneapolis Museum of Art, “Camera Work: Process and Image,” August 31-November 3, 1985; traveled to Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, November 22, 1985-February 2, 1986.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Out of a Dark Room: Photographic Variations from the Permanent Collection,” April 15–September 10, 1995. (Sylvia Wolf)
Rochester, New York, “The Photography of Alfred Stieglitz: Georgia O’Keeffe’s Enduring Legacy,” 2000. (note: dates and location of traveling exhibition unknown)
Art Institute of Chicago, “From Darkroom to Digital: Photographic Varations,” November 19–February 26, 2006. (Elizabeth Siegel)
Berlin, Germany, Gallery Kicken, “Kicken in Wien, Die Weltmeister,” Fall 2008.
New York, Seaport Museum New York, “Alfred Stieglitz: New York,” September 14, 2010-January 10, 2011.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Alfred Stieglitz and the 19th Century,” October 31, 2015-March 27, 2016. (Elizabeth Siegel)

The Alfred Stieglitz Collection

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