The EPL Project

During the early 20th century the world, to include art, was in upheaval. Ways of thinking were changing in both politics and in art to include photography. Art also played a large part in the revolutions that were taking place during this period. Theatre and poster art in Russia played a large part in the anti-tsarist movement that led to the Russian Revolution. The world was also at war in Europe and to the American south the Mexican Revolution was taking place.

This was the world that Paul Strand was living in during the early 20th century. The “Photo-Secession” led by Alfred Stieglitz had already taken place promoting pictorialism which had taken photography from a documentary type media to an art form focusing on the post-process instead of the image itself.

In 1911, after a short stint working for an insurance company, Strand began work as a self-employed commercial photographer.¹ Early in Strand’s career, he focused mostly on candid portraits taken on the streets of New York, in the city where he had been born in 1890. His most memorable portrait of a blind woman showed the influence of his teacher, Lewis Hine, at the Ethical Culture School he attended. Hine’s work focused on many social issues during the early 20th century to include child labor.² Strand’s documentary portraits of the people on the streets of New York City appeared in “Camera Work” in 1916.³ “Camera Work” was a photographic journal established by Alfred Stieglitz in 1903. After this collection of work, Strand began to change his focus.

After the end of World War I in 1918, modernism began to take hold in western societies. With the collapse of several empires after the “Great War” and the “revolution” of social thought arising out of the industrial revolution, Strand moved his work from a more documentary genre to a more modernist focus. Using abstracts of shapes, Strand took the idea of “Photo-secession” to a new level forcing the observer to analyze the photo in order to decipher what was in front of them or to focus on the “art” in every day life. His photos, “From the Viaduct,” New York (1916) and “Still Life, Pear and Bowls,” Twin Lakes, Connecticut (1916) demonstrate this change in focus and his movement into modernism.

Although early in his career, his work was largely defined by the artistic and social movements that were taking place during the early 20th century, his work spans several decades and includes portraits, abstracts, and still life. His work, and his movement into film, was mostly directed towards political and social issues. Throughout his life, he remained active using his photography and film as his form of expression. There is no doubt, by reviewing his works and accomplishments, that he had a large influence on modern day photography. His photographic works included subjects in Mexico, the United States, Europe, as well as in Africa right before his death on March 31, 1976.

NOTES

1. Spartacus Educational, “Paul Strand”, January 8, 2012 from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAPstrand.htm.
2. Spartacus Educational, “Lewis Wickes Hine”, January 8, 2012 from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRhine.htm.
3. Spartacus Educational, “Paul Strand”, January 8, 2012 from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAPstrand.htm.

REFERENCES

• Spartacus Educational, “Paul Strand”, January 2012 http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAPstrand.htm.
• Urban Photography Art.com, “Famous Photographers of Urban Scenes, Paul Strand”, January 2012 www.urban-photography-art.com/paul-strand.html.
• Spartacus Educational, “Lewis Hine”, January 2012 http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRhine.htm.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) and American Photography”, Lisa Hostetler (Department of Photographs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art), January 2012 http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/stgp/hd_stgp.htm.
• Wikipedia, “Photo-Secession”, January 2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo-Secession.
• Wikipedia, “Modernism”, January 2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism.
• Wikipedia, “Russian Revolution”, January 2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution.
• Wikipedia, “Mexican Revolution”, January 2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Revolution.
• Spartacus Educational, “Camera Work”, January 2012 http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAPcamera.htm.
• Aperture Foundation, Inc., Aperture – Masters of Photography, number 1: Paul Strand. New York, Aperture Foundation, Inc., 1987
• Daily Art Fixx, “Paul Strand: 1890 – 1976″, Wendy Campbell, October 16, 2011, on January 8, 2012 from http://www.dailyartfixx.com/2011/10/16/paul-strand-october-16-1890-%e2%80%93-march-31-1976/.

PHOTO REFERENCES

• Wall Street 1915 – Paul Strand, Master of Photography.com, January 8, 2012, http://masters-of-photography.com/S/strand/strand_wall_street_full.html.
• Still Life, Pear and bowls, Twin Lakes, Connecticut, 1916. on January 8, 2012 from http://www.dailyartfixx.com/2011/10/16/paul-strand-october-16-1890-%e2%80%93-march-31-1976/.