- Born:
- October 16, 1890, New York, New York, U.S.
- Died:
- March 31, 1976, Oregeval, France (aged 85)
- Movement / Style:
- abstract art
Paul Strand
-
Who was Paul Strand?
Paul Strand (1890–1976) was an influential American photographer known for his emphasis on sharp-focused, objective images.
Strand's work was influenced by Lewis W. Hine, with whom he studied photography at age 17, as well as by Alfred Stieglitz and the avant-garde paintings displayed at Stieglitz's gallery, which inspired Strand to emphasize abstract form and pattern.
Rejecting Pictorialism, Strand pursued detailed, unadorned photographs of natural forms and architecture, capturing "the spirit of place" in locations like Colorado, Maine, Quebec, and New Mexico. In the 1930s, he shifted to filmmaking to address social issues, including Redes about Mexican fishermen. Strand later moved to France and focused on community life, creating photographic books that presented narrative sequences of images. He was also associated with the Photo League, an organization of New York City photographers devoted to documenting life in the city’s working-class neighborhoods.
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What type of photography is Paul Strand known for?
Paul Strand is known for his emphasis on sharp-focused, objective images, which significantly influenced 20th-century American photography. Strand's work moved away from Pictorialism, a style that mimicked painting through manipulation of negatives and prints. Instead, he chose strictly photographic methods to capture minute detail and rich tonal ranges using large-format cameras.
His early work was inspired by avant-garde paintings, leading him to emphasize abstract form and pattern in photographs such as Shadow Pattern, New York and Wall Street. Later, Strand's photography captured the beauty of natural forms through dramatic close-ups and landscapes, revealing a deep awareness of the spirit of place. The final two issues of Camera Work featured Strand’s "straight" work, consisting of New York views and close-up portraits.
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How did Paul Strand help change photography as an art form?
Paul Strand significantly influenced 20th-century American photography by emphasizing sharp-focused, objective images. He rejected Pictorialism, a popular style that imitated painting through manipulated negatives and prints. Strand instead favored strictly photographic methods, using large-format cameras to capture minute details and rich tonal ranges.
Inspired by avant-garde paintings, Strand focused on abstract form and pattern in his photographs. His work, featuring everyday objects in sharp lighting and close range, was published in Alfred Stieglitz's Camera Work, influencing photographers to value the unique qualities of photography.
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What are some famous photographs or projects by Paul Strand?
Paul Strand was an American photographer known for his sharp-focused, objective images anchor text. Some of his famous photographs and projects include:
- Wall Street (1915) and Shadow Pattern, New York (1915): These photographs emphasize abstract form and pattern.
- White Fence (1916): In this photograph, Strand destroyed perspective to build a powerful composition.
- Mannahatta: A documentary film in collaboration with Charles Sheeler.
- Redes ("The Wave"): A motion picture about Mexican fishermen.
- The Plow That Broke the Plains: A government-sponsored documentary film.
- Native Land (1942): Strand photographed this film for Frontier Films.
- Time in New England (1950): A photographic book with Nancy Newhall.
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How did Paul Strand use photography to show social issues or everyday life?
Paul Strand's photography evolved to reflect social issues and everyday life, especially starting in the 1930s. Initially influenced by Alfred Stieglitz, Strand shifted from emphasizing abstract forms to documentary filmmaking to reach a wider audience and tell clearer stories about social concerns.
As chief photographer for the Mexican government in 1933, he created the film Redes (The Wave) about Mexican fishermen. Later, he formed Frontier Films in 1937 to produce documentaries focused on social and political content. After World War II, Strand's photography concentrated on community life, showcased in books that presented narrative sequences of images with accompanying text, such as Time in New England and Un Paese.
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How did Paul Strand’s work influence later photographers and the world of photography?
Paul Strand, an American photographer, significantly influenced 20th-century American photography by emphasizing sharp-focused and objective images. Strand's work rejected Pictorialism, a popular style at the time that manipulated negatives and prints to emulate painting effects. Instead, he favored strictly photographic methods, using large-format cameras to capture minute details and rich tonal ranges.
His objective approach, characterized by clean lines and cool effects, was part of the "New Objectivity" movement. Strand's sharp, detailed close-ups of machines, organic matter, and landscapes influenced photographers like Ansel Adams, who, after seeing Strand’s negatives, specialized in photographing Western wilderness areas. Strand's emphasis on directness and the camera's objectivity paved the way for other American photographers seeking abstract formal values through unadorned photographic images.
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Paul Strand (born October 16, 1890, New York, New York, U.S.—died March 31, 1976, Oregeval, France) was a photographer whose work influenced the emphasis on sharp-focused, objective images in 20th-century American photography.
When he was 17 years old, Strand began to study photography with Lewis W. Hine, who was later noted for his photographs of industrial workers and immigrants. At Hine’s urging, Strand began to frequent “291,” the gallery begun by Alfred Stieglitz, the leader of the Photo-Secession group. There, Strand met Stieglitz and was exposed to the avant-garde paintings of Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, and Georges Braque that were on display in the gallery. These works inspired him to emphasize abstract form and pattern in his photographs, such as Shadow Pattern, New York and Wall Street (both 1915). In one of the boldest photographs of the period, White Fence (1916), Strand deliberately destroyed perspective to build a powerful composition from tonal planes and rhythmic pattern.
Strand rejected the then-popular style of Pictorialism, which emulated the effects of painting in photographs by manipulating negatives and prints, in favour of achieving the minute detail and rich, subtle tonal range afforded by the use of large-format cameras. He relied on strictly photographic methods, realizing that the camera’s objectivity is at once its limitation and its chief asset. The purity and directness of Strand’s depictions of natural forms and architecture presaged the work of other American photographers who sought to express abstract formal values through the unadorned photographic image. Strand’s objective photographs of urban subjects were published by Stieglitz in the last two issues of his influential magazine Camera Work and were given a show at “291.” Much of the work in that show featured everyday objects, such as bowls and furniture, which were sharply lit and shot at such close range that they verge on seeming abstract.
After serving in World War I, Strand collaborated with the painter and photographer Charles Sheeler on the documentary film Mannahatta. While working as a freelance movie cameraman, he devoted his free time to still photography, capturing the beauty of natural forms through dramatic close-ups in Colorado (1926) and Maine (1927–28). In his photographs of the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec (1929) and of New Mexico (1930), he achieved a new understanding of landscape, revealing a deep awareness of what he called “the spirit of place.”
In the 1930s, Strand became increasingly concerned with addressing social issues, and so he switched his focus from photography to motion pictures as a means to reach a greater audience and to tell a clearer story. Appointed chief photographer and cinematographer by the Mexican government in 1933, he made the motion picture Redes (“The Wave”) about Mexican fishermen. He returned to the United States and worked as a cameraman for the director Pare Lorentz on the government-sponsored documentary film The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936). In 1937 Strand formed Frontier Films to make documentaries with social and political content. Of the nonprofit company’s seven films, Strand photographed only Native Land (1942).
After World War II, unhappy with the political situation in the United States, Strand moved to France and worked throughout Europe. From then on, much of his work focused on issues of community life. In his later years he produced a number of photographic books in which he could mimic the effects of film by laying out a narrative sequence of images, often accompanied by text. His books from this period include Time in New England (1950), with Nancy Newhall; La France de profil (1952; “France in Profile”), with Claude Roy; Un Paese (1955; “A Country”), with Casare Zavattini; and Tir A’Mhurain, Outer Hebrides (1962).