Paul Strand

American Photographer
 Biography
■ Paul Strand (October 16, 1890 – March 31,
1976) was an American photographer and
filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist
photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward
Weston, helped establish photography as an art
form in the 20th century. His diverse body of
work, spanning six decades, covers numerous
genres and subjects throughout the Americas,
Europe and Africa.
 Early Modernist Work
■ Born in New York City to Bohemian parents, in
his late teens Strand was a student of renowned
documentary photographer Lewis Hine at the
Ethical Culture Fieldston School. It was while on
a fieldtrip in this class that Strand first visited the
291 art gallery – operated by Stieglitz and
Edward Steichen – where exhibitions of work by
forward-thinking modernist photographers and
painters would move Strand to take his
photographic hobby more seriously.
 Filmaking
■ Over the next few decades, Strand worked in
motion pictures as well as still photography. His
first film was Manhatta (1921), also known as
New York the Magnificent, a silent film showing
the day-to-day life of New York City made with
painter/photographer Charles Sheeler. Manhatta
includes a shot similar to Strand's famous Wall
Street (1915) photograph. Other films he was
involved with included Redes (1936) (released in
the US as The Wave), a film commissioned by
the Mexican government, the documentary The
Plow That Broke the Plains (1936) and the
pro-union, anti-fascist Native Land (1942).
 France
■ In June 1949, Strand left the United States to
present Native Land at the Karlovy Vary
International Film Festival in Czechoslovakia. It
was a departure that marked the beginning of
Strand’s long exile from the prevailing climate of
McCarthyism in the United States. The
remaining 27 years of his life were spent in
Orgeval, France where, despite never learning
the language, he maintained an impressive
creative life, assisted by his third wife, fellow
photographer Hazel Kingsbury Strand.
 Family

■ Strand married the painter Rebecca

Salsbury in 1921. He photographed
Rebecca Salsbury Strand frequently,
sometimes with uncommonly close
compositions. Strand married Hazel
Kingsbury in 1951.
 Strand’s Politics
■ The timing of Strand’s departure to France is coincident
with the first libel trial of his friend Alger Hiss, with whom
he maintained a correspondence until his death.
Although he was never officially a member of the
Communist Party, many of Strand’s collaborators were
either Party members (James Aldridge; Cesare Zavattini)
or were prominent socialist writers and activists (Basil
Davidson). Many of his friends were also Communists or
were suspected of being so (MP DN Pritt; film director
Joseph Losey; Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid; actor
Alex McCrindle). 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.
Famous Images
Wall Street, 1915
Archina
The Family
Gateway-Hidalgo
 In His Own Words

“Your photography
is a record of
your living, for
anyone who
really sees”
 Paul Strand: Key Facts

■ 19th/20th Century American photographer

and filmmaker.
■ Most famous image is “Wall Street, 1915.”
■ Studied under Lewis Hine.
■ Accused of being/associating with
communists.
■ Lived the last 27 years of his life in France.