Paul Strand

{{Infobox artist

| name = Paul Strand

| image = Paul Strand by Alfred Stieglitz 1917.jpg

| caption = Paul Strand in a photograph by Alfred Stieglitz (1917)

| birth_name = Nathaniel Paul Stransky

| birth_date = {{Birth date |1890|10|16}}

| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age |1976|3|31|1890|10|16}}

| death_place = Orgeval, Yvelines, France

| nationality = American

| field = Photography, filmmaking

| training =

| movement =

| works =

| patrons =

| awards =

}}

Paul Strand (October 16, 1890 – March 31, 1976) was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century.{{cite web|last1=AnOther|access-date=2022-01-11|title=How Paul Strand Paved the Way For Photographic Modernism|url=https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/8482/how-paul-strand-paved-the-way-for-photographic-modernism|date=15 March 2016|website=AnOther}}{{cite web|first1=Francesco|last1=Dama|access-date=2022-01-11|title=An Intimate Encounter with Paul Strand's Photographic Journeys|url=http://hyperallergic.com/295439/an-intimate-encounter-with-paul-strands-photographic-journeys/|date=28 June 2016|website=Hyperallergic}} In 1936, he helped found the Photo League, a cooperative of photographers who banded together around a range of common social and creative causes. His diverse body of work, spanning six decades, covers numerous genres and subjects throughout the Americas, Europe, and Africa.

Background

Paul Strand was born Nathaniel Paul Stransky on October 16, 1890, in New York; his Bohemian parents were merchant Jacob Stransky and Matilda Stransky (née Arnstein).{{Cite web | url=http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/805.html?page=4 | title=Philadelphia Museum of Art - Exhibitions - Paul Strand: Master of Modern Photography}} When Paul was 12, his father gave him a camera as a present.{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|url=https://www.theartstory.org/artist/strand-paul/|access-date=16 August 2022}}

Career

File:Wall Street by Paul Strand, 1915.jpg

In his late teens, he was a student of renowned documentary photographer Lewis Hine at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. It was while on a field trip in this class that Strand first visited the 291 art gallery – operated by Stieglitz and Edward Steichen – where exhibitions of work by forward-thinking modernist photographers and painters would move Strand to take his photographic hobby more seriously. Stieglitz later promoted Strand's work in the 291 gallery itself, in his photography publication Camera Work, and in his artwork in the Hieninglatzing studio. Some of this early work, like the well-known Wall Street, experimented with formal abstractions (influencing, among others, Edward Hopper and his idiosyncratic urban vision).Wells, Walter, Silent Theater: The Art of Edward Hopper, London/New York: Phaidon, 2007 {{ISBN|978-0-7148-4541-8}} Other of Strand's works reflect his interest in using the camera as a tool for social reform.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} When taking portraits, he would often mount a false brass lens to the side of his camera while photographing using a second working lens hidden under his arm. This meant that Strand's subjects likely had no idea he was taking their picture.{{Cite news|last=Conway|first=Richard|date=30 October 2014|title=Paul Strand, Master of Modernism, in Retrospect|work=Time magazine|url=https://time.com/104072/paul-strand-retrospective/|access-date=24 December 2021}} It was a move some criticized.

=Photo League=

Strand was one of the founders of the Photo League, an association of photographers who advocated using their art to promote social and political causes. Strand and Elizabeth McCausland were "particularly active" in the League, with Strand serving as "something of an elder statesman." Both Strand and McCausland were "clearly left-leaning," with Strand "more than just sympathetic to Marxist ideas." Strand, McCausland, Ansel Adams, and Nancy Newhall all contributed to the League's publication, Photo News.{{cite book| first = Gerald H. | last = Robinson| title = Photography, History & Science| publisher = Carl Mautz Publishing| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-NeC2Rmb1jYC| pages = 38 (Photo League), 43 (documentarian), 91 (Realism), 111 (influence on Ansel Adams)| date = 2006| isbn = 9781887694278| access-date = 23 June 2020}}

=Still photography and filmmaking=

Over the next few decades, Strand worked in motion pictures as well as still photography. His first film, Manhatta (1921), was made with painter/photographer Charles Sheeler.{{cite web|access-date=2022-01-11|title=Symphonies of steel and stone: silent cinema and the city|url=http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2016/mar/21/city-symphonies-silent-cinema-paul-strand-victoria-albert|date=21 March 2016|website=The Guardian}} Also known as New York the Magnificent, the silent film depicted the day-to-day life of New York City. Manhatta includes a shot similar to Strand's famous Wall Street (1915) photograph. In 1932–35, he lived in Mexico and worked on Redes (1936), a film commissioned by the Mexican government, released in the US as The Wave. Other films he was involved with were the documentary The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936) and the pro-union, anti-fascist Native Land (1942).

From 1933 to 1952, Strand had no darkroom of his own and used those of others.{{cite book| title = Paul Strand| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=nnFOAAAAYAAJ| pages = 62 (dark room), 72 (AGLOSO)| date = 1987| access-date = 23 June 2020| last1=Strand | first1=Paul }}

=Communism=

In December 1947, the Photo League appeared on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations (AGLOSO).

In 1948, CBS commissioned Strand to contribute a photo for an advertisement captured "It is Now Tomorrow": Strand's photo showed television antennas atop New York City.{{cite book| first = Lynn

| last = Spigel| title = TV by Design: Modern Art and the Rise of Network Television| publisher = University of Chicago Press| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=q_dekIDkPtMC| pages = 68–69| date = 2008| isbn = 9780226769684| access-date = 23 June 2020}}

On January 17, 1949, Strand signed in support of Communist Party leaders (Benjamin J. Davis Jr., Eugene Dennis, William Z. Foster, John Gates, Gil Green (politician), Gus Hall, Irving Potash, Jack Stachel, Robert G. Thompson, John Williamson, Henry Winston, Carl Winter) in the Smith Act trials, along with Lester Cole, Martha Dodd, W. E. B. Du Bois, Henry Pratt Fairchild, Howard Fast, Shirley Graham, Robert Gwathmey, E.Y. Harburg, Joseph H. Levy, Albert Maltz, Philip Morrison, Clarence Parker, Muriel Rukeyser, Alfred K. Stern (husband of Martha Dodd), Max Weber, and Henry Wilcox.{{cite book| chapter = Defense of arrested and indicted Communist leaders, 1948-49| title = House of Representatives Report No. 1700| publisher = US GPO| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wWBbChEhg50C| pages = 46

| date = 1950| access-date = 23 June 2020}}

=Later years in Europe=

File:The Family by Paul Strand.jpg

In June 1949, Strand left the United States to present Native Land at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in Czechoslovakia. The remaining 27 years of his life were spent in Orgeval, France, where, despite never learning the language, he maintained an impressive, creative life, assisted by his third wife, fellow photographer Hazel Kingsbury Strand.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

Although Strand is best known for his early abstractions, his return to still photography in this later period produced some of his most significant work in the form of six book "portraits" of place: Time in New England (1950), La France de Profil (1952), Un Paese (featuring photographs of Luzzara and the Po River Valley in Italy, Einaudi, 1955),{{cite web|access-date=2022-01-11|title=I posed for Paul Strand: the day the great photographer walked into my village in Italy|url=http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/mar/16/i-posed-for-paul-strand-the-day-the-great-photographer-walked-into-my-village-in-italy|date=16 March 2016|website=The Guardian}} Tir a'Mhurain / Outer Hebrides{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/scotland-blog/2012/sep/20/scotland-photography-paul-strand|title = Paul Strand's Hebrides: Subtle, sensitive with a dash of Marxist steel|website = The Guardian|date = 20 September 2012}}{{cite web|access-date=2022-01-11|title=Paul Strand's intimate and rich Hebridean images bought for Scottish gallery|url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/scotland-blog/2015/jul/22/paul-strands-intimate-and-rich-hebridean-images-bought-for-scottish-gallery|date=22 July 2015|website=The Guardian}} (1962), Living Egypt (1969, with James Aldridge) and Ghana: An African Portrait (with commentary by Basil Davidson; 1976).{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

Personal life

File:Paul Strand (American - Portrait - New York - Google Art Project.jpg

Strand married the painter Rebecca Salsbury on January 21, 1922.New York, New York, Marriage Index 1866-1937 He photographed her frequently, sometimes in unusually intimate, closely cropped compositions. Following their divorce in 1933, Strand met Virginia Stevens and married her in 1936. They divorced in 1950. He married Hazel Kingsbury in 1951 and they remained married until his death in 1976."{{Cite book|last=Buselle, Rebecca and Wilner-Stack, Trudy|title=Paul Strand: Southwest|date=2005|publisher=Aperture|ISBN=9781931788465|edition=1st|location=New York}}

The timing of Strand's departure to France is coincident with the first libel trial of his friend Alger Hiss, with whom he maintained a correspondence until his death. Although he was never officially a member of the Communist Party, many of Strand's collaborators were either Party members (James Aldridge; Cesare Zavattini) or prominent left-leaning writers and activists (Basil Davidson). Many of his friends were also Communists or suspected of being so (Member of Parliament D. N. Pritt; film director Joseph Losey; Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid; actor Alex McCrindle). Strand was also closely involved with Frontier Films, one of more than 20 organizations that were identified as "subversive" and "un-American" by the US Attorney General. When he was asked by an interviewer why he decided to go to France, Strand began by noting that in America, at the time of his departure, "McCarthyism was becoming rife and poisoning the minds of an awful lot of people."{{Cite book|last=Adams, Robert, 1937-|title=Why people photograph : selected essays and reviews|date=1994|publisher=Aperture|isbn=0-89381-597-7|edition=1st|location=New York|oclc=31404331}}, page 86

During the 1950s, and owing to a printing process that was reportedly only available in that country at the time, Strand insisted that his books be printed in Leipzig, East Germany, even if it meant they were initially banned in the American market on account of their Communist provenance.{{Cite web|url=http://www.frasermacdonald.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/MacDonald-F-Hist-Photog-2004.pdf|title = Paul Strand and the Atlanticist Cold War}}

Following Strand's move to Europe, it was later revealed in de-classified intelligence files, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and now preserved at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, that he was closely monitored by security services.{{Cite web|url=https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/paul-strand-master-of-photography-review|title = Paul Strand: Master of Modern Photography}}

Legacy

In 1984 Strand was posthumously inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.{{Cite web |title=Paul Strand |url=https://iphf.org/inductees/paul-strand/ |access-date=2022-07-25 |website=International Photography Hall of Fame |language=en-US}}

The highest price reached by a Strand photograph in the art market was by Akeley Motion Picture Camera (1922), who sold by $783,750 at Christie's New York, on 4 April 2013.[https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5657840 Akeley Motion Picture Camera, New York, 1922, Christie's, 4 April 2013]...

Publications

Time in New England (1950)
La France de Profil (1952)
Un Paese (1955)
Tir a'Mhurain / Outer Hebrides (1962)
Living Egypt (1969), with James Aldridge
Ghana: An African Portrait (1976), with commentary by Basil Davidson

Film

Manhatta (1921; with Charles Sheeler), "considered to be the first American avant-garde film"{{Cite web |title=Paul Strand, Charles Sheeler, Manhatta, 1921 |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/299884 |website=MoMa}}

Exhibitions

Paul Strand: Photographs 1915–1945, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1945{{cite web|access-date=2022-01-11|title=Paul Strand: Photographs 1915–1945|url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2344|website=The Museum of Modern Art}}
Paul Strand: Photography and Film for the 20th Century, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2014;{{cite magazine|access-date=2022-01-11|title=Paul Strand's Sense of Things|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/paul-strands-sense-of-things|date=15 April 2016|magazine=The New Yorker}} Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2016;{{cite web|access-date=2022-01-11|title=Sean O'Hagan's top 10 photography exhibitions of 2016|url=http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/dec/07/top-10-photography-exhibitions-of-2016-sean-ohagan|date=7 December 2016|website=the Guardian}}{{cite news|access-date=2022-01-11|title=Photographic pioneer Paul Strand on show|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-35823949|newspaper=BBC News|date=18 March 2016}}James Pickford, [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/22f1f624-eac2-11e5-888e-2eadd5fbc4a4.html "V&A's Strand retrospective offers glimpse of lost world"], The Financial Times, 15 March 2016.{{cite news|access-date=2022-01-11|title=Paul Strand: Honest gaze of a craftsman's camera|url=https://www.ft.com/content/981f00c6-ec5d-11e5-bb79-2303682345c8 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/981f00c6-ec5d-11e5-bb79-2303682345c8 |archive-date=2022-12-10 |url-access=subscription|newspaper=Financial Times|date=22 March 2016}} Fundación Mapfre, Madrid, 2020–21{{cite web|access-date=2022-01-11|title=Paul Strand exhibition in Barcelona|url=https://www.fundacionmapfre.org/en/art-and-culture/exhibitions/historical/year-2020/paul-strand/|website=Fundación Mapfre}}
Paul Strand: The Balance of Forces, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, 2023

Public collections

{{col-list|colwidth=30em|

The Art Institute of Chicago{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|access-date=2022-05-11|url=https://www.artic.edu/artists/36816/paul-strand|website=www.artic.edu|year=1890 }}
The Cleveland Museum of Art{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|access-date=2022-05-11|url=https://www.clevelandart.org/art/collection/search?filter-artist=Paul%20Strand|website=www.clevelandart.org}}
Dallas Museum of Art{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|access-date=2022-05-11|url=https://collections.dma.org/search?facet_artist_creator=paul%2Bstrand|website=collections.dma.org}}
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|access-date=2022-05-11|url=https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/person/103KHM|website=www.getty.edu}}
Los Angeles County Museum of Art{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|access-date=2022-05-11|url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/168270|website=collections.lacma.org}}
Philadelphia Museum of Art{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|access-date=2022-05-11|url=https://www.philamuseum.org/search/collections?filters=%7B%22artist%22%3A%5B%22Paul%20Strand%22%5D%7D|website=www.philamuseum.org}}
Princeton University Art Museum{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|access-date=2022-05-11|url=https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/makers/2590|website=artmuseum.princeton.edu}}
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York{{cite web|title=Paul Strand (1890–1976)|access-date=2022-01-11|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pstd/hd_pstd.htm|website=www.metmuseum.org}}
Moderna Museet, Stockholm{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|access-date=2022-05-11|url=https://sis.modernamuseet.se/people/2836/paul-strand/objects|website=sis.modernamuseet.se}}
Musée d'Orsay, Paris{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|access-date=2022-05-15|url=https://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/collections/recherche?union_artist_names=35828&search_type=advanced_search|website=www.musee-orsay.fr}}
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|access-date=2022-05-15|url=https://emuseum.mfah.org/people/1386/paul-strand/objects|website=emuseum.mfah.org}}
Museum of Modern Art, New York, 39 prints (as of 8 January 2022){{cite web|access-date=2022-01-08|title=Paul Strand|url=https://www.moma.org/artists/5685|website=The Museum of Modern Art}}
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|access-date=2022-05-15|url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.6729.html?artobj_artistId=6729&pageNumber=1|website=www.nga.gov}}
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|access-date=2022-05-15|url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/paul-strand|website=www.nationalgalleries.org}}
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|access-date=2022-05-11|url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/artist/2168/|website=www.ngv.vic.gov.au}}
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|access-date=2022-05-15|url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Paul_Strand/|website=www.sfmoma.org}}
Saint Louis Art Museum{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|access-date=2022-05-11|url=https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/8701/|website=www.slam.org}}
Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.{{cite web|title=Paul Strand|access-date=2022-05-15|url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/paul-strand-4675|website=americanart.si.edu}}
Victoria and Albert Museum, London{{cite web|access-date=2022-01-11|title=Search Results|url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/search/|website=Victoria and Albert Museum}}
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 9 prints (as of 11 January 2022){{cite web|access-date=2022-01-11|title=Paul Strand|url=https://whitney.org/artists/3500|website=whitney.org}}

}}

References

External links

[https://www.loc.gov/search/?fa=contributor:strand,+paul Library of Congress: Paul Strand]
[https://www.moma.org/artists/5685 Paul Strand at MOMA]
[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/arts/paul-strands-lifetime-of-photography-at-philadelphia-museum.html?ref=design&_r=0 Karen Rosenberg, "Expatriate Humanist, Lens Up His Sleeve, Paul Strand's Lifetime of Photography, at Philadelphia Museum"] – The New York Times
[http://africasacountry.com/2014/11/paul-strands-1960s-portrait-of-ghana/ Zachary Rosen, "The photographer Paul Strand's 1960's Portrait of Ghana"] – Africa is a Country
{{IMDb name|nm0833271}}
[http://lumieregallery.net/wp/197/paul-strand/ Paul Strand, Lumiere Gallery]
Paul Strand, Photographs of the American Southwest and Mexico. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.