The 291 Gallery
Stieglitz opened
a small gallery at 291 Fifth Avenue in 1905, just 291
for short, and for a few years he showed the work of photographers
published in his magazine, Camera Work. But following an
exhibit of drawings by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin in 1908,
291 became a showcase for the masters of European modernism, including
Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Stieglitz also promoted the work
of American artists at 291, including that of an unknown young woman,
Georgia OKeeffe.
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The Steerage marked a turning
point for Alfred Stieglitz. In it, he abandoned the idea that photographs
should bear some likeness to paintings, and embarked on a new path to
explore photos as photos in their own right. The man who had led the charge
for photographs to take a place beside painting in the world of art now
took straight photographs that looked like camera work, not
brushwork. In 1923, Stieglitz wrote, My photographs look like photographs
and they therefore cant be considered art. (Camera Work,
A Pictorial Guide, 1978) He never even attempted to cover up the changes
in his thinking.
The atmospheric effects and limited tonal range of pictorial photographs
were replaced by sharp focus everywhere and a full range of blacks and
whites in The Steerage. Also new in this photo was Stieglitzs
apparent belief that form and composition were the essential elements
in a photograph. He described the moment he saw the picture, on a boat
headed for Europe: 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
the triangle. I stood spellbound for a while. I saw shapes related to
one anothera picture of shapes, and underlying it, a new vision
that held me: simple people; the feeling of ship, ocean, sky . . .
(Weston Naef, ed., In Focus: Alfred Stieglitz, 1995)
As well as being a fundamental shift in Stieglitzs thinking about
pictorial photography, this picture serves as a comment on economic divisions
of society. The white gangplank that divides the picture into two parts,
upper and lower, also serves as a symbolic divide for the people in the
picture. Below the line is the steerage, one big hold reserved
for people who couldnt afford staterooms. Above the line is an observation
deck for everyone aboard the ship. The photographers graphic vision
of shapes and balance and the social conditions of the day are united
in one remarkable picture. Ironically, Stieglitz would not recognize the
social aspect of this photograph until many years after he had taken it.
For Stieglitz, the main considerations were visual.
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