Born in New York in 1890, Paul Strand attended photography classes and was taught by Lewis Hine the greatest documentary photographer of his time, at the Ethical Culture School in 1908. Hine inspired Strand to explore the creative possibilities of the medium, and arranged a visit to Alfred Stieglitz's 291 gallery, a center for the latest views of the proper meaning of photography. Stieglitz had pioneered Pictorialism, a technique that attempted to create fine art images that would rival traditional paintings. Strand was active for a brief period with the Camera Club of New York but his ideas and techniques came from Stieglitz and his circle, followed in 1915 by a group that evolved around the Modern Gallery. He produced soft-focus pictorialist images in the style of Stieglitz but by 1917 was experimenting with modernist images with abstracted compositions. Stieglitz championed the photographer's work by devoting the last two issues of Camera Work to Strand and giving him his own show at the gallery 291.

Strand abandoned pictorialism altogether by 1920, and became the leading American modernist photographer along with Alfred Stieglitz who had also abandoned pictorialism. The modernist trend was appearing in other media that influenced Strand and his work included the range of abstracted close-up views of nature as well as sharply defined urban images. Some of this modernist work, like "Wall Street," experimented with formal abstractions. Other of Strand's works reflect his interest in using the camera as a tool for social reform. He was one of the founders of the Photo League, an association of photographers who advocated using their art to promote social and political causes.

Over the next few decades, Strand worked in motion pictures as well as still photography. He both created films such as his first, Manhatta made in 1921, a film showing the day to day life of Manhattan. He was involved in Redes made in 1936 and released in the Untied States as The Wave, a film commissioned by the Mexican government. He was also involved in the powerful Pare Lorentz documentary, The Plow That Broke the Plains made in 1936 and the pro-union, anti-fascist Native Land, made in 1942.

Strand left the United States in 1949 and this timing of his departure to France is coincident with the first libel trial of his friend Alger Hiss, with whom he maintained a correspondence until his death. Strand was never officially a member of the Communist Party, but many of Strand's collaborators were either Party members or were prominent socialist writers and activists. Strand was also closely involved with Frontier Films, one of more than twenty organizations that were branded as "subversive" and "un-American" by the US Attorney General.

He maintained an impressive creative life assisted by his third wife, fellow photographer Hazel Kingsbury Strand. He died in 1976.

Medium : 1 photomechanical print : photogravure

Created/Published : 1916

Creator : Paul Strand, photographer, 1890-1976

Housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress

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Product #: cph3b43622