PAUL STRAND
Born in New York on Oct. 16, 1890, Paul Strand is an American photographer who, with Edward Weston and Alfred Stieglitz, promoted the development of photography as a form of art. Also, Strand is one of the founders of the Photo League, which is an alliance of photographers using their artworks to draw attention to some social and political events. He devoted himself to the field of still photography and motion pictures (film). Manhatta, Strand’s first film, was released in 1921 and is considered as the first avant-garde film (a kind of experimental film). During high school, a field trip to an exhibition in Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery inspired him, and decided to pursue the photography path. The exhibition includes works of a variety of artists like Edward J. Steichen and Clarence H. White. After years of emulating their works, in 1915, he began to work on movement in the city, portraits of the street, and abstraction. Strand was also curious about portraiture, especially that of random people in New York City.
“how you build a picture, what a picture consists of, how shapes are related to each other, how spaces are filled, how the whole thing must have a kind of unity”
Wall Street
Strand’s film, Mahatta, has a similar scene as wall street (see below).
City Hall Park
For the portraiture, Strand has unique technique called candid-camera technique. He likes to hide the real lens under his arm in order to catch the real moment.
Young Boy
PowerPoint
Citation
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Strand
- http://www.artnet.com/artists/paul-strand/15
- https://www.artsy.net/artist/paul-strand
- https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/paul-strand?all/all/all/all/1