The racetrack was a place to see and be seen by the upper middle class when Alfred Stieglitz took this picture in 1904. The real subject of this photo, however, is the formal relationships of the curving track, the horizon line, and ceiling and pillars in front of them. Stieglitz, a fan of all things modern and tuned into modern art movements in Europe, used architectural elements to carve up space in this picture – a very modern idea indeed. The big, abstract shapes that result fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Modern painting at the turn of the century had begun to record the painter's physical, intellectual and emotional experience of things. As far as Stieglitz was concerned if painting was no longer limited to subjects like nature, religion, love and war, then photography would not be limited either. Now a painting, a photograph, and all art forms, could capture the vital essence of the modern world by reflecting the personal vision of the artist. The atmosphere of his earlier pictorial work is still here, but in this picture there's also a hint of modern things to come for Stieglitz.