After serving with the AEF, Steichen would depart from the painterly aesthetics of Pictorialism. He fully embraced commercial work, and the technical precision required by wartime photography can be seen in his commercial images, which blur the lines between celebrity portraiture, fashion photography, and advertising. With the start of World War II, he would reenlist, overseeing a photographic unit tasked with documenting the activities of the Naval Air Force.