Paul Strand was an American photographer and film maker, he was also a major figure in the development of the Modernism movement in photography. Paul attended the Ethical Culture School in New York where he studied art history under Charles Caffin. Later, Paul remembered that it was Caffin who introduced him to artistic photography.

In 1916 Paul showed Alfred Stiegltz his portfolio of photographs and Stiegltz offered him a one man exhibition in his gallery.

Strands work reflected his interest in modernism, and the cubist art of Cezanne and Picasso had the strongest influence on his work. Paul spent the year 1916 photographing various inanimate objects in compositional studies, and then moved on to photographing scenes of daily life in New York which included studies of people and buildings.

In 1917 Alfred Stiegltz devoted his last issue of Camera Work to Paul Strands photography, and reprinted Strands statement from a short lived magazine called Seyen Arts, which has become a manifesto of modernist photography.

In the 1920s Strands work focused on close-up images of nature and machines, but he was growing increasingly interested in film making. Some of Strands films included New York the Magnificent (1921), Redes (1934, released in the USA as The Wave in 1937), and Plow that Broke the Plains (1936). Paul then founded Frontier Films (1937-42) which he used to create the film Native Land (1941).

After World War II Strand worked with numerous writers to produce books on various locations throughout the United states. In 1950 Paul moved to France to avoid McCarthyism. Paul died in 1975.

Check out our collection of vintage works by Paul Strand

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