Paul Strand collection

Paul Strand was born in 1890 in New York City and began studying photography at age 17 under documentary-photographer Lewis H. Hine at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. In 1908, Strand joined the Camera Club of New York and began experimenting with soft-focus lenses, gum prints and enlarged negatives. By 1912, Strand was working as a commercial photographer and continuing his photography experiments, often seeking criticism from renowned photographer Alfred Stieglitz. In 1916, Strand had his first solo exhibition at Stieglitz’s “291” gallery and was also published in Camera Work that same year.

After serving as an x-ray technician for the U.S. Army Medical Corps in the first world war, Paul Strand collaborated with artist Charles Sheeler in the production of the film Manhatta (New York the Magnificent) in 1921. Strand continued on to work in the film industry as a cameraman for a medical film company; later, when the medical film company went out of business, Strand worked as a freelance motion picture cameraman. In 1923, Strand delivered the lecture “The Art Motive in Photography” at the Clarence H. White School of Photography, which was later published in the British Journal of Photography. In 1925, Strand was in an exhibition called Seven Americans at the Anderson Galleries in New York alongside artists Charles Demuth, John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz and Arthur Dove. Beginning in 1927, Strand photographed a series of extreme close-ups of plants, driftwood and rocks. From 1932 to 1934, Strand was appointed the Chief of Photography and Cinematography for the Department of Fine Arts at the Secretariat of Education for the Mexican government. During this period, Strand photographed and supervised the production of the government-sponsored film Redes, or The Wave in the U.S.

In 1935, Paul Strand traveled to Moscow where he was offered a position as a photographer for USSR in Construction. Strand ultimately declined and returned to the U.S. There, he worked with Ralph Steiner and Leo Hurwitz to produce The Plow That Broke the Plains for the U.S. Resettlement Administration. In 1937, Strand founded Frontier Films, a non-profit educational film company. Among the notable films that Frontier Films released are Heart of Spain and Native Land. In 1943, Strand worked as a cameraman on various film projects for U.S. government agencies. However, Strand returned to photography after a decade of working in film in 1944. Strand had a major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York called Photographs 1915-1945 by Paul Strand.

Paul Strand moved to Europe in 1948, eventually settling in Orgeval, France in 1951. Throughout the mid-1950s, Strand worked on a series of portraits of prominent French intellectuals and close-ups of his garden in Orgeval. In 1959, Strand traveled to Egypt for two and a half months, where he photographed for Living Egypt. Strand then traveled to Morocco in 1962 to begin working on a new series of photographs that were published in Tir a' Mhurain: Outer Hebrides. During the 1960s, Strand photographed in Romania and Ghana, received a David Octavius Hill Medal from the Gesellschaft Deutscher Lichtbildner, and had a series of exhibitions held around the world. Paul Strand: A Retrospective Monograph, The Years 1915-1968 was published in 1971, with an exhibition running from 1971 to 1974. In 1973, Strand was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary member of the American Society of Magazine Photographers, and a fellow of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Strand continued to work until he died from a long-term illness on March 31, 1976 in Orgeval, France.

1890

Born 16 October, New York City, of Bohemian descent.

1904

Enrolls Ethical Cultural High School (New York).

1907

Joins photography class given by Lewis H. Hine. Goes with Hine to Alfred Stieglitz' Little Gallery of the Photo-Secession ("291") to see exhibition of photography. Decides to become a photographer.

1908

Joins Camera Club of New York. Begins experiments with soft-focus lenses, gumprints, enlarged negatives.

1909

Graduates Ethical Cultural High School. Goes into business with father.

1911

To Europe for the summer. Works at various jobs.

1912

Sets up as a commercial photographer. Continues serious experiments with photography, returning to Stieglitz every few years for criticism. Influenced by Picasso, Braque, Brancusi, and others seen at "291" and the Armory Show.

1915

First experiments with photographic abstraction. Brings folio of new works to the Photo-Secession to show Stieglitz; Stieglitz promises to show and publish in Camera Work.

1916

First one-man exhibition at "291." First publication in Camera Work, 48.

1917

First close-ups of machine forms. Camera Work, 49/50 devoted entirely to Strand. Publishes article, "Photography," Seven Arts Chronicle, 2 (August 1917).

1918-19

Serves in the U.S. Army Medical Corps (Fort Snelling, Minnesota) as an X-ray technician.

1919

Takes short trip to Nova Scotia. First landscapes and close-ups of rock formations.

1921

Makes film Manhatta (New York the Magnificent) with Charles Sheeler. Joins medical film company as a cameraman. First close-ups of plants. Publishes article, "American Watercolors at the Brooklyn Museum," Arts, 2 (December 1921).

1922

Buys an Akeley motion picture camera and sets up as a free-lance motion picture cameraman when medical film company goes out of business. Continues still photographs of machines. Marries Rebecca Salsbury. Publishes article, "John Marin," Art Review, January 1922.

1923

Delivers lecture, "The Art Motive in Photography," Clarence H. White School of Photography, 23 March 1923. [Lecture subsequently reprinted in British Journal of Photography, 5 October 1923.]

1925

Exhibition, "Seven Americans," Anderson Galleries (New York) with Charles Demuth, John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz, and Arthur Dove.

1926

To Colorado and New Mexico in summer. Photographs of tree root forms and Mesa Verde cliff dwellings.

1927-28

Summers at Georgetown Island, Maine near close friend, sculptor Gaston Lachaise. Begins series of extreme close-ups: plants, driftwood, rocks.

1929

Exhibition, "Forty New Photographs by Paul Strand," Intimate Gallery (New York). To Gaspe in summer; first interpretation of a locality, integrating all elements with particular interest in moments of perfect compositional relation.

1930-32

To New Mexico in summers. Series of landscapes with clouds, adobe architecture, ghost towns, etc.

1932

Exhibits with wife Rebecca, a painter, at An American Place (New York). Returns to New Mexico.

1932-34

To Mexico. Begins series of bultos, "candid" portraits of Indians. Appointed Chief of Photography and Cinematography, Department of Fine Arts, Secretariat of Education. Exhibition, "Exposicion de la Obra de la Artista Norteamericano. Paul Strand," Sala de Arte de la Secretaria de Educacion (Mexico City), February 1933. Photographs and supervises production of the film, Redes (released in the U.S. as The Wave) for the Mexican government.

1935

To Moscow for 6 weeks to join Group Theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford. There meets Eisenstein, Dovzhenko, Ekk, and other directors in film and theater. Offered jobs photographing for USSR in Construction and working with Eisenstein on new films, but returns instead to the U.S. Photographs with Ralph Steiner and Leo Hurwitz The Plow That Broke the Plains, produced for the U.S. Resettlement Administration and directed by Pare Lorentz.

1936

To Gaspe in summer; produces new Gaspe series. Marries Virginia Stevens.

1937-42

Establishes and heads Frontier Films, a non-profit educational motion picture company. Associates include Leo Hurwitz, Lionel Berman, Ralph Steiner, Sidney Meyers, Willard Van Dyke, David Wolf, and others.

1938-40

With Leo Hurwitz edits film Heart of Spain, first Frontier Films release.

1940

Publishes 20 Photographs of Mexico, a portfolio of hand gravures.

1942

Native Land, released, a Frontier film photographed by Strand and co-directed by Strand and Leo Hurwitz.

1943

Does camera work on several films for U.S. government agencies. As Chairman of the Committee of Photography of the Independent Voters Committee of the Arts and Sciences for Roosevelt, edits with Leo Hurwitz and Robert Riley, a montage of photographs, depicting twelve years of the Roosevelt administration. [Included in the exhibition, "Artists' Tribute to President Roosevelt," piece covered an eighty foot wall in the Vanderbilt Gallery, Fine Arts Building (New York).]

1943-44

To Vermont in the winters. Returns to still photography after ten years in film work. Produces Vermont series.

1944

Delivers lecture, "Photography and Other Arts," Museum of Modern Art (New York).

1945

Major retrospective exhibition, "Photographs 1915- 1945 by Paul Strand," Museum of Modern Art (New York), Nancy Newhall, curator. Guest, with 250 other American scientists, artists and writers, of President and Mrs. Roosevelt at a White House luncheon and at inaugural ceremonies the following day.

1946

Publishes article, "Alfred Stieglitz 1864-1946," New Masses, 6 August 1946.

1946-47

Travels through New England with Nancy Newhall, collecting materials for Time in New England.

1947

Publishes article, "Stieglitz, an Appraisal," Popular Photography, 1947.

1948

Moves to Europe.

1949

Native Land wins award at Czech International Film Festival.

1950

Travels to France with assistant Hazel Kingsbury to begin research and photography for La France de Profil.

1951

Marries Hazel Kingsbury. Settles in Oregeval, France.

1952

La France de Profil, text by Claude Roy, published.

1952-53

Photographs of Italy, some of which are later used in Un Paese.

1954

To the island of South Uist (Outer Hebrides) to make photographs for Tir a' Mhurain. Un Paese, text by Cesare Zavattini, published.

1955

Publishes article, "Italy and France," U.S. Camera Annual, 1955.

1955-57

Works on a series of portraits of prominent French intellectuals and on close-ups of his Oregeval garden.

1956

Exhibition, "Diogenes with a Camera III," Museum of Modern Art (New York), Edward Steichen, curator.

1959

To Egypt for two and a half months, photography for Living Egypt.

1960

Brief photographic trip to Rumania.

1962

To Morocco to begin work on a series of photographs and to continue research into Arab life. Tir a' Mhurain: Outer Hebrides, text by Basil Davidson, published.

1963

Named to American Society of Magazine Photographers Honor Roll.

1963-64

To Ghana at the invitation of President Nkrumah, photography for Ghana: An African Portrait.

1967

Returns to Rumania to complete photographs begun in 1960 with intent to publish a book. The Mexican Portfolio (reissue of Photographs of Mexico) published. Receives David Octavius Hill Medal from the Gesellschaft Deutscher Lichtbildner (GDL), Mannheim, West Germany. Named to "Who's Who in America." The Mexican Portfolio selected by the American Institute of Graphic Artists as one of the "Fifty Best Books of 1967/68." Exhibitions, "Gesellschaft Deutscher Lichtbildner. Aussetellung im Manheimer Kungstverein e.V.," Augusta Anlage 58, (Mannheim, West Germany); "Photographs by Paul Strand," Worcester Art Museum (Worcester, Massachusetts); "Paul Strand: 1927- 1954," San Francisco Museum of Art (San Francisco, California); "Paul Strand," Sunset Cultural Center (Carmel, California).

1968

U.S. edition of Tir a' Mhurain: Outer Hebrides published.

1969

Living Egypt, text by James Aldridge, published. Delivers lecture, "The Still Photographer as Filmmaker," Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut). Exhibitions, "Paul Strand," Kreis Museum, Haus der Heimat (Freital, West Germany); "Paul Strand," Studio Callebert (Roseselare, Belgium); [Paul Strand Photographs], Museum of Fine Arts (St. Petersburg, Florida); [Paul Strand], Galerie Olleke (Heerlen, Netherlands).

1969-70

One-man exhibition organized by Gilbert de Keyser and Yves Auquier for the Administration Generale des Affaires Culturelles Francais of Belgium opens Musee Communal de Verviers (Verviers, Belgium), and later travels to Maison de la Culture (Namur, Belgium), Palais de Beaux Arts (Charleroi, Belgium), Theatre Nationale (Brussels, Belgium), Museum of Fine Arts (Ostend, Belgium), "Meyhuis" (Helmond, Netherlands), and Museum of Vaart, Hilversum, Netherlands).

1970

Exhibition of gravures, Stockholm, Sweden, as guest of the Swedish Photographers Association. Attends showings of Heart of Spain, Redes, and Native Land, as guest of the Swedish Film Archives.

1971

Paul Strand: A Retrospective Monograph, The Years 1915-1968 published. Exhibition, "Paul Strand," Currier Gallery of Art (Manchester, New Hampshire.

1971-74

Major retrospective exhibition, "Paul Strand: Photographs 1915-1968," opens Philadelpha Museum of Art (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), and later travels to St. Louis Art Museum (St. Louis, Missouri), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, Massachusetts), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, California), and the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum (San Francisco, California).

1972

Receives Grand Prix du Festival d'Arles (France) for Paul Strand: A Retrospective Monograph, The Years 1915-1968. Exhibitions, [Paul Strand], Light Gallery (New York); [Paul Strand], Hotchkiss School (Lakeville, Connecticut).

1973

Named Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Honorary Member, American Society of Magazine Photographers; Fellow, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Delivers lecture, "An Evening with Paul Strand," Museum of Modern Art (New York). Exhibitions, "Paul Strand," Salle Etienne Gautier (Arles, France); "Paul Strand: The Mexican Portfolio," Sunset Cultural Center (Carmel, California).

1976

Ghana: An African Portrait, text by Basil Davidson; Portfolio I: On My Doorstep, 1914-1973, and Portfolio II: The Garden, 1957-1967 published. Dies 31 March, Oregeval, France.