Synopses & Reviews
and#147;Alfred Stieglitzand#8217;s
The Steerage (1907) is one of the most famous images of the twentieth century, and one which raises complex issues regarding art photography and subject matter. The pairing of Anne MacCauleyand#8217;s well-contextualized historical analysis with Jason Franciscoand#8217;s more philosophical and poetic reading gives great insight into this important photograph. Together, they offer a new and fascinating take on a canonical work.and#8221;and#151;Kim Sichel, author of
Germaine Krull: Photographer of Modernity.
and#147;It is past time for the history of Stieglitz' The Steerageto be deconstructed, and for the myths surrounding it to be replaced with rational analysis. McCauleyand#8217;s and Franciscoand#8217;s essays are each well-conceived and executed, filled with promising ideas, new ways of approaching this canonic image, and tactics for separating myth from truth. Together they present a beautiful contrast of styles, and make this book a very important re-evaluation of a well-known masterpiece." and#151;Joel Leivick, Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor in Photography, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University
Review
and#8220;Fascinating and revealing. . . . A rich experience. . . . Illuminates the way in which we see ourselves and others around us.and#8221;
Synopsis
When, in 1907, Alfred Stieglitz took a simple picture of passengers on a ship bound for Europe, he could not have known that The Steerage, as it was soon called, would become a modernist icon and, from todayand#8217;s vantage, arguably the most famous photograph made by an American photographer. In complementary essays, a photo historian and a photographer reassess this important picture, rediscovering the complex social and aesthetic ideas that informed it and explaining how over the years it has achieved its status as a masterpiece. What aspects of Stieglitzand#8217;s ideas and sometimes-murky ambitions help us understand the pictureand#8217;s achievements? How should we assess the photograph in relation to Stieglitzand#8217;s many writings about it? The authors of this book explore what The Steerage might mean in at least two sensesand#151;by itself, as a grand and self-sufficient work, and also ineluctably bound up with the many stories told about it. They make the photograph, today, what Stieglitz himself made it over the yearsand#151;a photo-text work.
About the Author
Jason Francisco is an acclaimed photographer and the Chair of the Visual Arts Department at Emory University. He is the author of Far From Zion: Jews, Diaspora, Memory (Stanford, 2006). Elizabeth Anne McCauley is David H. McAlpin Professor of the History of Photography and Modern Art at Princeton University and the author of Industrial Madness: Commercial Photography in Paris 1848-71 (Yale, 1994).
Table of Contents
Introduction
Anthony W. Lee
The Making of a Modernist Myth
Elizabeth Anne McCauley
The Prismatic Fragment
Jason Francisco
Notes
Index