Abstract Rocking Chair

Joey Rozier

In Homage To...

Paul Strand

Paul Strand was the son of immigrants from Bohemia, and was born in New York City on 16th October, 1890. Strand was given his first camera by his father when he was twelve years old. Two years later he joined the Ethical Culture School where he was taught by Lewis Hine. Hine took Strand to the Photo-Secession Gallery and introduced him to the work of Alfred Stieglitz, David Octavius Hill, Julia Margaret Cameron, Gertrude Kasebier and Clarence White.

A member of the the Camera Club , Strand worked for an insurance company after graduation in 1911. However, two years later he became a self-employed commercial photographer. He worked closely with Alfred Stieglitz, who was a strong advocate of what he called Straight Photography. In 1916 Strand's photographs appeared in Camera Work and Stieglitz wrote that "Strand is without doubt the most important photographer developed in this country since Alvin Langdon Coburn."

In 1935 Strand visited the Soviet Union with Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford where he met the radical film director, Sergi Eisenstein. When Strand returned to the United States he began to produce socially significant documentary films. This included The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936), his film on trade unions in the Deep South, People of the Cumberlands (1937) and Native Land (1942).

In 1936 Strand joined with Berenice Abbot to establish the Photo League in New York. The Museum of Modern Art in New York held a full-scale retrospective of Strand's work in 1945. Strand published a series of books including Time in New England (1950), France in Profile (1952), Un Paese (1954), Mexican Portfolio (1967), Outer Hebrides (1968) and Ghana: An African Portrait (1976). Paul Strand died on 31st March, 1976.

Source: temple.edu