On the Clinic Stairs
病院の階段で
- Birth Year
- 1879
- Death Year
- 1973
- Date
- 1931
- Technique, Material, Format
- gelatin silver print
- Dimension
- 23.8 x 19.1 cm
- Donor name
- Ms. Joanna Steichen
- Category
- Photograph or Moving Image by ForeignPhotographer/Artist
- Inventory Number
- 84-PHF-090
Edward Steichen was a photographer who excelled across multiple genres, from urban and still-life motifs to portraiture and commercial photography.
This work was taken on the stairs of a hospital in Manhattan. It was originally intended for use in an advertisement for a hospital. When Vanity Fair magazine ran the photo, they added the headline "Hope on the staircase." A strong light shines from above, holding the gazes of those waiting for treatment. Their "hopes" are vested in medicine. In the United States during the Great Depression, there must have been a particular urgency in this message. And by skillfully incorporating the turn of the staircase into the composition, Steichen directs the viewer’s gaze upwards too.
(MATSUNAGA Shintaro)