Paul Strand was one of the pioneers of art photography, along with other big names like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen. Alfred opened up a famous gallery in the year 1908, at 291, Fifth Avenue, New York, which later came to be known as simply “291”. The exhibition revolves around the works of Alfred Stieglitz and others, who were trying their utmost to bring about the elements of photography in amalgamation with art.
Paul Strand began photography in the 1910s but began his career as a photographer only after making portraits of fellow artists later on. He considered photography a hobby until he visited the 291 gallery and got inspiration from the works of Alfred Stieglitz.
Paul started to recognize the problems that were to evolve aesthetically in the United States and Europe in 1915, and used contact prints on platinum paper. He also managed to write well, with ‘Photography and the New God’ to his credit. This made it necessary for Paul to give a glimpse of nature in each of his works.
His inclination to excellence in photography came after he was told by Stieglitz that his photos were too soft graphically. Paul then put in more effort to produce better results for his mentor, Stieglitz, and made himself learn how to create depth and movement in a picture that he created. Later on, Paul began focusing on people, single, or numerous, in his photography. He was always interested in photographing people without them knowing, and capturing views in which these people had put themselves in. His photographs show poverty and real life images were specifically portrayed. In the historical context, Paul basically made images of the human conditions prevalent in the metropolis, and what truth and reality the public actually went through.
Paul used to have a modernistic approach prior to this photography, but got into realistic photography soon, describing whole life stories in just one snap. Paul produced one of the most famous art works in history, which included the portrait of a blind woman, who was wearing a “blind” sign down her neck. This depicted the state of the old and helpless people and how handicapped some of the population was. The image of the blind woman was one of the best photographic views ever made (Sante, L., 1998).
The wall behind her is a craggy, uneven one. She is dressed in black and has a feeble expression on her face. One of her eyes is a stone eye and with the other eye she is trying to view something on her left side. This is what Paul began to photograph in his later years- he focused on the meagerness of the population living in New York. She seems to have been photographed without her knowing, as she is not looking into the camera, and this was one of the techniques Paul used while taking images.
One of his famous images again portrays a woman, who is seated with baskets around her. She seems to be a vendor selling some vegetables, with cane baskets, one in her hand and another beside her. This image shows signs of poverty too, and is seen to be a picture of a woman of Mexican origin. She is a dark-skinned individual, seated with her head covered with a shawl. Her mouth is open, as if to voice out what she was selling. She is leaning her back against a roughly textured wall, in a tiled street. The bony face illustrates how poor and undernourished the woman is, which again signifies powerlessness.
Another of his works includes a visual image of a British threesome, consisting of three young girls standing beside each other. They very much look alike, and are probably sisters, and have been captured by Paul to show unity amongst them. It is a black and white portrait signifying what became one of the most important aspects of Paul’s photography, which was the real world. The background is a wall made of rocks, giving the photograph a rugged look. None of the backgrounds of Paul’s photographs have a smooth background wall; they are all textured to an extent.
A picture of a family is also exhibited, which consists of one aged female, and four middle-aged to young males. They have posed outside a house which seems to be old, and are all lost in deep thoughts. The seriousness of the lives of the poor and underprivileged people has been shown in this image. Three of the members are barefoot and two are wearing shoes. They are all dressed shabbily. A window covered with wooden planks can be seen in the picture, and one of the walls has some cement coming off, showing the bricks beneath it. It can be assessed that the house belongs to a family of the low genre.
Works Cited
“Paul Strand (1890–1976)”. Web.
Sante, L. “A Year in the Life Paul Strand’s breakthrough moment”1998. Web.