Paul Strand

Paul Strand was born in New York City in 1890. He was given his first camera at 12 years old, two years later he was at the Ethical Culture school where he was taught by Lewis Hine.

Paul was greatly influenced by the photo- seccession group and made some amazing abstract images.  Inititally he did some experimental work with the medium but move over to straight photography. He relied totally on the suject, viewpoint and choice of lighting, rather than the manipulation at either the negative or printing stages.

Some of his work appeared in the last two editions of Camer Work (1916-17). In what was the last edition of the magazine, Alfred Stieglitz described Strands work.

‘ His work is rooted in the best tradition of photography. His vision is potential. His work is pure. It is direct. It does not rely on tricks of process. Whatever he does it’s applied with inteligent process. In the history of photography there are but few photographer who, from the point of view of expression, have done much work of any importance. And by importance we mean has some relatively lasting quiality, that element which gives al are its real significance….the work is brutally direct. Devoid of any film flams; devoid of trickary and any ‘ism’; devoid of any attempt to mystify an ignorant public…’

Paul Strand himself said;

‘ Objectivity is of the very esscence of photography, its contribution and at the same time its limitation. honesty noless than intensity of vision is the prerequisite of a living expression. This means a real respect for the thing in front of the photographer, this is accomplished without tricks of process or manipulation through the use of stright photographic methods.’

Images Paul Strand Took.

I really like Paul Strands work, I like his composition and the abstractness in his images, I like the way he frames his images, the people and the objects and the way he uses light. Looking at his images have given me some idea of how I would like to photograph some of my images in Korea.