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The Steerage, Alfred Stieglitz, 1907: passengers on two decks of a ship, a white gangway between them
Masters1870s–1900s

The Steerage

Alfred Stieglitz, 1907. Taken on a liner bound from America for Europe, looking down from above at the passengers travelling in steerage.

PHOTOGRAPHER
Alfred Stieglitz · 1 January 1864 – 13 July 1946
DATE AND SHIP
June 1907 · SS Kaiser Wilhelm II
CAMERA
Hand-held 4×5 Auto-Graflex, one glass plate
FIRST SHOWN
Camera Work, October 1911 · exhibited at 291 in 1913
PRINT SHOWN
Photogravure, 19.7 × 15.7 cm · Minneapolis Institute of Art
RIGHTS
Public domain · record on Wikimedia Commons
Open the Commons record

Read the frame

01

Two decks

The frame splits in two: the upper deck at the top, the lower deck below, and a white gangway cutting across between them.

02

Shapes

Stieglitz later said he saw shapes that answered each other: a round straw hat, a slanting stair, the chains along the rail.

03

One plate

He had a single glass plate ready, so this is the only picture he made of the scene. He developed it in Paris about a week later.

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Facts from Wikipedia, 'The Steerage' and 'Alfred Stieglitz', the Minneapolis Institute of Art's record of the print, and the file's record on Wikimedia Commons, read 2026.10.16.