The Search for Inspiration

Stieglitz - The Steerage

There are few accounts of making a photograph as compelling as Alfred Stieglitz’s story about a photograph he took while on a ship from New York City to Europe in 1907.

There were men and women and children on the lower deck of the steerage. There was a narrow stairway leading to the upper deck of the steerage, a small deck right on the bow with the steamer.

To the left was an inclining funnel and from the upper steerage deck there was fastened a gangway bridge that was glistening in its freshly painted state. It was rather long, white, and during the trip remained untouched by anyone.

On the upper deck, looking over the railing, there was a young man with a straw hat. The shape of the hat was round. He was watching the men and women and children on the lower steerage deck...A round straw hat, the funnel leaning left, the stairway leaning right, the white drawbridge with its railing 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 shapes related to each other.

I was inspired by a picture of shapes and underlying that the feeling I had about life.¹

A black and white photograph is, at its core, nothing more than shapes and tones. The key, of course, is arranging those shapes in the frame to make the photograph you want to make.

Stieglitz’s approach to photographic seeing can, in itself, inspire your photography. I know it has inspired mine.

On a recent trip to New York City, my friend Adam Miller drove us to the Dumbo area of Brooklyn. We then walked along the East River for some early morning photography. Adam lives in New York City and his panoramic photographs are stunning. He was gracious in showing me around.

The enormous scale of the Brooklyn Bridge against the Manhattan skyline was jarring to a tourist like me. I grew up in a small town. I live in the suburbs of a mid-size city.

With my Mamiya RZ67 and 50mm lens, I thought about the shapes I saw and how to arrange them in the frame. I saw lines, triangles and rectangles. I considered my feelings of smallness beneath the bridge and settled on this:

In conclusion, think about the shapes you see and how your environment makes you feel. Consider angles, lines, and repeating elements. Use those observations and your feelings about the scene for your photography.

This is what Stieglitz did for The Steerage. You can do it too.

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1. Stieglitz, Alfred (1942). "How The Steerage Happened". Twice a Year (8–9): 175–178.