Steichen's famous portrait of the railroad magnate was captured in a brief moment of impatience with the photographer; a moment when Steichen realized "that a dynamic self-assertion had taken place" in Morgan's demeanor. Steichen concluded: the experience of photographing J.P. Morgan taught me an important lesson... . The lesson was that a portrait must get beyond the almost universal self-consciousness that people have before the camera. If some moment of reality in the personality of the sitter did not happen, you had to provoke it in order to produce a portrait that had an identity with the person. The essential thing was to awaken a genuine response. This was one of the most valuable lessons I ever learned, and it stood me in good stead later... .