Introduction
When reviewing Paul Strand’s awe-inspiring body of work, there is no single point of influence. There’s several. In fact, if a photographer would want to emulate an entire career in photography, Paul Strand’s name should be on that very short list.
Paul Strand (1890-1976) is considered one of the fathers of American photography and worked for over sixty years in the field. Why is he considered one of the fathers? A master? Consider this… he influenced the likes of Ansel Adams and Walker Evans. Now consider all the photographers Adams and Evans influenced. Paul Strand’s influence reverberates through photographers into our current era. That’s long reach. That is legacy.
“I think of myself as an explorer who has spent his life on a long voyage of discovery,”
Strand said. For this installment of Under The Influence, I’ll primarily focus in the early part of Strand’s journey.