Art

Modern American Art - Paul Strand
1. About the Artist Paul Strand
October 16, 1890 was the day when famous photographer Paul Strand came in this world. He was born in the house of Bohemian parents, who immigrants from Bohemia to USA, at the New York City. Kodak Brownie Camera, which he got in 1902, brought his interest in the photography. After two years of this at the Ethical Culture School, he started learning photography from a well-known photographer Lewis Hine. In 1907, Strand met Stieglitz and Edward Steichen during his class visit of art gallery at 291 Fifth Avenue. In this visit Stieglitz got impressed by Strand and later he promoted Strands work from his 291 art gallery. After the Europe trip of 1911, Strand had established himself as a freelance photographer in the New York City. His early work was mainly related with formal abstractions and social reform. Art Gallery 291 helped him to expose his work to Picasso, Cezanne, Braque, and Matisse. Simple architecture themes and household things had been dramatically framed by Strand to build up a sequence of near abstract works.

1. Portrait work of Strand is a collection of close-up portraits of unknown persons whom he met on the street. He expressed his observations about social class with the help of his work. Strand and some other people founded an association of photographers, which was known as Photo League, to promote social and political causes through their art. After this, between 1920s and 1930s, Strand performed his work on some different subjects like machines and organic. Eventually Strand chose some other subjects such as environment and man for his photography. But it was not the end of his journey as photographer. Later, Strand gave a new direction to his career and became a cinema photographer. He worked as a cinema photographer in several films. Strands interest in photographic book brought him again towards photography.

2. About Strands Work
Strand started his career as a photographer after the visit of 291 gallery of Stieglitz. Now photography was just not only a hobby for Strand and he gave a new height to the art of photography. He was an active member of the Camera Club, which was in the New York, for a short period of time. But he used the darkrooms of this Camera Club for more than 20 years. Work, which was done by the Strand, had been exhibited at 291 art gallery, the Modem Gallery, and the Camera Club. He won prizes for his work at the Wanamaker Photography exhibitions.

 Fifth Avenue, which is one of the famous photographs taken by the Strand, has been releasd in 1915 at New York. His work became a fundamental and basic for the modernist photographers in the United States as well as in Europe.

3. Strand photographed machine, urban sites and nature during the mean period of his career and during this period 8 x 10  5 x 7 inch view cameras and platinum paper had been used by him for his work. Photography and the New God, which was written by strand set a base for the photographers. He told about the capabilities of the large-format camera with sharp lens. He came to know about X-ray and other medical camera procedures during his services in the Army Medical Corps.4 After this, his work Manhatta released in 1921 as New York the Magnificent. It was his first movie. Later, An Akeley movie camera had been purchased by Strand and he stated working as a freelance cinematographer. During this time his famous photograph Lathe was released in 1923 in the New York. He did work as a news maker and the maker of short features at the West Coast. He made some documentary films which were sponsored by the government such as Redes or The Wave and he also gave contribution in pro-labor and anti-Fascist movies. His most motivated production Native Land was released during the Second World War. He also wrote some articles in which he integrated image and text. Many famous works has been created by Strand such as lathe, Manhatta, Native Land, The Wave, Fifth Avenue, Chair Abstraction, Blind Woman, Wall Street and many more. Now we will focus Strands three famous art works Manhatta, Chair Abstraction and Blind Woman out of these.

3. Manhatta
In 1921, after providing services in Army Medical Corps, Strand with Charles Sheeler (a painter and photographer) produced his first film Manhatta under the banner of motion pictures. It is also known as New York the Magnificent. The total duration of this documentary is 11 min and it is a black  white film. In 1995, this documentary won an award National Film Registry. Manhatta is a silent film and in this film daily life of the people of the New York has been shown. Each part of this movie had been framed perfectly by Strand and a shot similar to his famous Wall Street had been included in Manhatta. Title for this movie had been taken from Whitmans poem Manahatta. In this movie strand tried to show that the strength of the New York City in not only because of its people, but it is also because of the structure of this city. Strand captured the power and beauty of the New York in this movie wonderfully. Strand played two roles in the making of this movie role of director and role of Cinematographer.

Manhatta is an innovative work of the Americs experimental cinema by Paul Strand and it is a thoughtful series of scenes. It is much closer to painting than a film because there are total 65 shots in this film and it moves gradually  step by step from morning to night like a day. In this film mass of the workers had been shown near shipyards and bridges. Most remarkable objects of this film are photos and painting of grand towers and bottomless valleys of the New York City. This film is a good example of nature photography. Manhatta was not completely unique film of that time, but it was the first avant-garde film which was produced in the USA. It is some what similar to New York, Broadway at Union Square, and Fifth Avenue. But the main difference in the New York street scene Manhatta was that actual life of the New York had been recorded in the 19th century films and they were made generally for documentary purpose. On the other side aesthetic of the image was the main concern for Strand. Strand tried to expose the feeling of urban life with his camera in Manhatta. In this film the people of the New York had been represented in the form of crowd. Robert Hughes commented on this film that Despite the lines from Whitmans poems, Manhatta is not really Whitmanesque in feeling. Strands Manhatta is a clear and abstract film, which became a learning point for many artist of American Cinema. A 35mm movie camera, which was made in France, had been used in this film. Only a handful of prints of this film were made and after some time original negative got disappeared. At that time a nitrate 35mm projection print was the only last print and then this film had been digitally restored from this print. Lots of difficulties came into the way of restoring the film, but finally film had been restored.

4. Chair Abstraction
Chair Abstraction is also another work of the Paul Strand. He did this work during his breakthrough period. Strand took this photograph at his familys country house at Twin Lakes. During this time he took simple abstract images of household objects from fundamental points of view. He did not use darkroom for this work. He did this only with the help of his camera. His keen observation and deterministic power helped him to take everyday architecture photographs in the modern photographic world. He tilted cameras view finder by 45 degree. Pattern of the chairs spindles had been forced into the upper third of the frame.

Chair Abstraction (Referred from amica.davidrumsey.com)

This photograph tells about the talent of the Strand. Each line of the photograph is clear.  The light which is being reflected by the chair is not creating effect on the clarity of the photograph. Angle of the camera is perfect with full use of the available recourses. Light-sensitive materials had been used in this photograph by the Strand, which shows his awareness about the science.

5. Lathe Machine
In 1923 after purchasing Akeley camera Strand took some photographs of machines and buildings. Lathe is one of them, which was taken at Akeley Machine Shop in the New York. Gelatin silver print had been used in this photograph by Strand.  There is a title, sign and date on this photograph. Original size of this picture was 9 x 7 inch or we can say 24.1 x 19.1cm.

Lathe (Referred from httpfaculty.dwc.eduwellmanSrand-Lathe3.htm)
It is the one of the most famous photographs of the strand. This photograph creates interest about the structure and a want to identify the foundation of a substance. This photograph had been presented with strong and fixed scientific detail. This photograph reveals crucial characteristics about object. It tells about the technology which was dominating all industrialized societies. This photograph brought the idea of marketing products by capturing good images of the products.

6. Conclusion
Now it could be said that for Strand photography was not just a hobby it was more than an aesthetic pursuit. His thinking was that photography could be used as a inflective tool in the modern world. His knowledge about photography was awesome and he did a great hard work to reach at the heights of the photography. His work tells about the political and social changes. His photos points towards the strength of the New York City. He gave his contribution not only in the United States of America, but he also did work in some European country. His work was famous in the United States as well as in the most of the countries of the world. Lines and shapes were clear in his phonographs. He knew the thing that how to make a photograph interesting and memorable. The use of the science in the materials of photography and the use of the mathematics in the angles of the camera tells about his knowledge. Thats why simple photographs of household objects such as a chair, photographs of a blind woman, and photographs of buildings, which were taken by him, are world famous today. Finally, we can say that he was a great photographer and he gave a new direction to the photography in the America.