Evaluating Art - The Steerage

January 24, 2006 Tuesday 6:12 AM

One type of assignment for us in Foothill College’s Winter 2006 PHOTO-10 class is to evaluate a particular work of art, both objectively and subjectively, using a series of questions adapted by instructor Kate Jordahl from George Sackman’s “How to Read Art Illustrations” (from Consumnes River College).

The first image I chose for evaluation is a 1907 photogravure by Alfred Stieglitz titled "The Steerage", published in Camera Work, no. 34, and housed at the Museum of New York. The image viewed was on p. 185 of Mary Warner Marien's Photography: a Cultural History.


Questions to ask in forming an objective response to a work of art:

Is there a caption or supporting information? What does this caption tell you about the artwork?
The title of the photo, "The Steerage", tells us the location of the image, and aids in our interpretation of what is happening. However, the caption is "generic", without any particular information about the type of boat, where it's located, or where it's going, or when this event takes place. And perhaps that is the point - this is an iconic image, meant to speak of far more than what one particular image might show.

What type of artwork is illustrated? Medium? Size?
The image is a photogravure which is reprinted in a 2002 American textbook on the history of photography. No information on the size of the image is given. However, the size of the picture in the book gives some indication of it's importance - the reprint takes up 2/3rds of the page. The fact that it is reproduced 100 years after it's original creation indicates it has "stood the test of time". The fact that it is in "the" history of photography textbook suggests it is an important image. The fact that the photographer, Alfred Stieglitz, gets a two-page spread in this textbook means that he and his work are VERY important. Hence, this image is well-worth evaluating!

What can you say objectively (i.e. without possible disagreement) about the work illustrated?
The image is full of people, on two different levels. A gangplank bisects the image from mid-left to upper-right. The people are seen from a vantage point above and to the right, as if the viewer were looking down and askance. The angles formed by the stationary objects (the boat, the plank, the post, the ladder) are non-parallel and non-perpendicular. The people are viewed as a group, rather than as individuals. The image is black-and-white, and filled with photographic information.

How does this work compare with other works by the same artist?
On the opposite page of Marien's text (p. 184) is another image by Stieglitz. This one, titled "Sun's Rays - Paula, Berlin" and taken in 1889, is an image of a lone woman, looking down at a letter she's writing, and with her back to us. Again, it is a sideways view, from the right and above. The title of the image shows the photographer is focused on the artistic elements of the scene, the effect of the sun's rays, more so than on the person photographed. The textbook explains that this is actually a very personal photograph of his companion Paula, and that the wall behind holds photographs of Stieglitz that illustrates his presence in the place and his relationship to the woman. However, the caption shows that the photographer is interested in "the bigger picture", in the artistic effects of its viewing.

Common elements unite these two images: a point of view from above and to the right, such that the viewer sees the scene to our lower left; the preference for seeing the universal in the personal, and the artistic elements in the intimate details of life; an eye that balances blacks and whites, forms and shadows, details and implications; and an energetic engagement with the viewer's eye, inviting one to see or search for so much more than meets the eye.

The objective differences between the two images are relatively unimportant: the left-page image ("Sun's Rays") faces left, while the right-page image ("The Steerage") has a directionality facing right. "Suns Rays" shows a solitary figure, whereas "The Steerage" shows a mass of humanity. Yet both images are uniquely engaged with their subject matter, and both show a photographer who cares - one who selects his focus and his subjects, who presents a point of view, and who interacts with his audience. These are not the barren fields or overwhelming industrial artifacts that others have chosen. And the images are skillfully and artistically created. A masterwork illuminates both the artist AND his objects of interest, and engages the viewer, and this is what both images do

Another image by Stieglitz titled "Equivalent", taken in 1930, is shown on p. 188, demonstrating a very different style of photography. SO - he's a master who moves with the times and his burgeoning talents...

Can you place the work in relation to any particular style, period, or school?
Although an American, Stieglitz began photography while studying engineering in Berlin in the last decades of the 1900's. He was undoubtedly influenced by the energy and excitement of the European artists and photographers of the time, and especially by his mentor Hermann Wilhelm Vogel (see page 183). He returned to America and created his own "school" by helping form the Photo-Secession in 1902, patterned after the European Secessionists of Berlin and Vienna. He was editor of American Amateur Photographer and Camera Notes, ran the "Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession", at 291 Fifth Avenue (hence it's nickname "291"), and helped stage many showcases for artistic outlet at the turn of the 20th Century in America. See Marien, pp. 181-188.
Questions to ask in forming a subjective response to a work of art:

How do you respond to the subject?
"The Steerage" strongly engages me immediately. It is a powerful image of action and people. The structural elements of stationary objects highlights this apparently unorganized collection of humanity, and it energetically creates a question within - who are these people? What are they doing? The answer is obvious - they all have their own agenda! They look in every direction; their dress and comportment are individually varied (the top hat of one and the shawl of another mixes with the quizzical look and the pensive and playful). What IS unique is the fact that all these people are held together, framed, and united by large immovable objects, and the scene is dominated by their purpose - a passage, evidently, from one world to another. I am fascinated!

What role does craftsmanship and technical skill play in the experience of this artwork?
Skill is of paramount importance in this image. The structural, stationary elements create the unity of what must have felt like an overwhelming experience for these people. Without the artistic "point of view", the image would be a jumbled and jarring jolt, instead of a harmonious homage to an elemental American experience. Stieglitz is masterful in making us want to know about these people, and in letting us experience the monumental-ness of their plight. They are stuck and they are waiting. Yet we are made to honor them as they are immortalized by a masterful artist.

How do you feel subjectively about the work? Doe it attract, repel, puzzle, shock, or intrigue you – or does it leave you cold? Why?
The scene attracts, intrigues, and excites me. I want to look into it's nooks and crannies; I want to know what's going on with all these people; and I want to follow my eye as it peruses every minute detail of this fascinating study of "The Steerage".

Are there patterns that intrigue and engage you in the artwork? Are you interested in such things as texture, scale, design and organization?
I would love to see this image in its actual appearance. How large is it? Does it dominate a wall, or would it be hidden in a corner of a cacophonous gallery? Does the image "leap out" at you? Does it have textures? These questions are, to me, unanswerable. Yet even on a printed page, or on a postcard that I've collected from some unremembered moment, I am drawn to this image. The plank is prominent; the separation between the "classes" of people; the stark contrasts of black and white and animate and inanimate; and the strongly angular ACTION of this photo energize and engage me.

Does the work of art have a relationship to the life of the artist? Is it biographical?
Marien tells us that Stieglitz experienced a "watershed moment" while "sailing on a trip to Europe aboard the Kaiser Wilhelm II". She continues: "He was looking over the first-class deck to the steerage below, recognizing there not the disheartened immigrants returning to Europe, but a combination of abstract forms that evoked a profound response: 'A round straw hat, the funnel leaning left, the stairway leaning right, the white draw-bridge with its railings made of circular chains - white suspenders crossing on the back of a man in the steerage below, round shapes of iron machinery, a mast cutting into the sky, making a triangular shape...I saw a picture of shapes and underlying that the feeling I had about life'" (quoted in Marien, p. 185).

What this quote from Stieglitz tells me is that I have miss-read the photo. I have imagined it to be a tale of travelers eagerly and anxiously arriving from Europe, rather than one of disillusioned immigrants returning to a homeland hoped to be more receptive. But no matter. It is a GREAT photo, and I can thankfully experience it as I wish. It can evoke feelings within me (and certainly has with many others also!) that are unique to me. It is an iconic image, and it transcends the particulars. In fact, I suggest it is the very fact that Stieglitz saw the structure of the artistic elements as abstract forms that has allowed him to photograph it such that it has become a universally-appealing icon of the Age of Immigration.

How does the artwork relate to world events and history of its time?
This photo, taken in 1907, illuminates an entire age - the immense immigration era at the turn of the 20th century. Ship travel was common, and the cross-Atlantic voyage was a beckoning call for millions. America became great with this grand cross-continental fertilization. Without these people streaming to America, we would not exist as we now know ourselves. Pictured here are the "huddled masses, yearning to be free". Or such is this author's imagining and experiencing of this image!!

Is there a philosophic content? How does this effect/affect your reaction to the work of art?
The image, to me, does not seem "authored". It does not feel as if the artist intended a particular message to be created. Rather, it feels like an invitation, to see anew a common scene, and to re-view it in its monumental entirety. "The Steerage" is just that, and what we make of it is left up to us. And that's the way I like it.

Is the artwork successful in your opinion? Why?
Stieglitz captured a moment in time, and created in "The Steerage" an image that takes our breath away. It is a moment that is full of overpowering and emotionally-laden experience. It is an image of feeling in all its immensity, and it is one of history in the making. Yes, it is a successful work of art, because it engages us, and it informs us, and it has become a PART of us. It is this very ability to see the universal in the particular, and the ability to convey that image into the viewer, that makes a masterpiece. This image, for me, is one of the finest, and it captures the essence of photography, and of America. We could not hope for more from one of the greatest of our photographic pioneers. The fact that Stieglitz sponsored and showcased so many other artists is "icing on the cake". This image, in and of itself, is powerful; his own artistic works are masterful; and his life's work was monumental. What an honor and joy to view it!
8:40 AM - finished
9:05AM - edited