Masterpieces & Curiosities: Alfred Stieglitz’s The Steerage

‘Masterpieces & Curiosities: Alfred Stieglitz’s The Steerage’ focuses on Stieglitz’s enduring 1907 picture of steerage-class passengers aboard the ocean liner Kaiser Wilhelm II. This image has often been regarded as evidence of the poor conditions under which many immigrants arrived in America; however, Stieglitz took the photograph on a voyage to Europe. As such, it is a document of people who were likely denied entry and citizenship to the United States. Stieglitz’s concerns, however, were largely aesthetic rather than social-minded: he was moved more by the picture’s formal qualities than its subject matter. Stieglitz considered the work to be his greatest triumph in a long, illustrious career as a photographer, stating later in life, “If all my photographs were lost, and I’d be represented by just one, The Steerage, I’d be satisfied.”

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