Untitled - Issues of Image Magazine - George Eastman House

en's imagery. Strand, however, did not have
these shortcomings. From 1915 on, Strand
made precise, sharp-focus images, compatible
with the "straight" approach that Stieglitz had
advocated at that time. He also understood, it
seems to me, much better than Steichen the
lessons of European Cubism and abstraction.
Learning much from the exhibitions of avantgarde
art at 291 and the Armory Show in 1913,
Strand, it could be argued, became the first
photographer in history whose style was heavily
influenced by modernist painting and sculpture.
Paul Strand was born in New York City in
1890, the only child of Jacob and Matilda
Stransky (the family changed the name to
Strand shortly before his birth). Strand grew up
in the city, attending public schools until 1904,
when he entered the Ethical Culture High
School. It was there that he took a class in
drawing, but, he recalled, he had "very little
interest and little talent for it." More important
for his artistic development was a class in art
appreciation conducted by Charles H. Caffin,
one of the most sensitive and advanced critics
writing in America at that time. Caffin not only
praised the abstractness of Whistler's paintings
and Japanese art, he was also a perceptive
critic of photography and in 1901 published
Photography as a Fine Art, a pioneering book
on pictorial photography. We do not know what
exactly Strand derived from Caffin's course, but
he remembers being impressed by the critic's
wide knowledge, and it may be that Caffin's
sympathy for abstraction influenced Strand's
subsequent interest in that pictorial mode.
Lewis Hine, another of the teachers at, the
Ethical Culture School, introduced Strand to
the discipline of photography. Later renowned
for his moving documentary photographs of
immigrants, laborers, and slum dwellers, such
as "Aged Negro Head, No. 1," Hine was an
instructor in biology and served as a semiofficial
photographer for the school. In 1901,
he had obtained permission to start a class
called "nature study and photography," and it
was there that Strand learned to take photographs
and to develop and print them. Hine's
greatest contribution, Strand recalled, was to
take the class to Stieglitz's Photo-Secession
Gallery at 291. There the students saw some
of the finest available examples of pictorial
photography, works by the English photographers
Hill and Adamson, Julia Margaret Cameron,
and Craig Annan; the Austrians Henneberg,
Watzek, and Kuehn; the French photographers
Demachy and Puyo; and the Americans
Steichen, Coburn, Kasebier, White, Eugene,
and, of course, Stieglitz.
Greatly stimulated by his visits to 291, Strand
soon decided he would become a photographer.
His father approved of his choice of a career,
although, unlike Stieglitz's father, he could not
offer his son financial support while he learned
his craft. Upon graduation from high school in
1909, Strand had to go to work as a clerk and
salesman in his father's importing business, and
he pursued photography in his free time on the
weekends. During this period, he systematically
studied techniques and materials, consciously
building a solid foundation for his future work
in photography.
In 1911, after his father sold his business,
Strand took his savings and went to Europe for
the summer. He saw no examples of modern
art there that might have influenced his abstract
photographs; the work he admired in the
museums was that of the Pre-Raphaelites and
the Barbizon School, which he now considers
"very poor painting." After his return from
Europe, Strand set himself up as a commercial
photographer, specializing in portraits and
views of colleges and fraternity houses. Nevertheless,
while he was doing commercial work,
he was also practicing photography as an art.
following the currently-fashionable fuzzy, softfocus
styles of the Photo-Secession, reminiscent
of Clarence White. 3
Strand continued to visit 291 from time to
time, studying the exhibitions there and bringing
his work to Stieglitz for criticism. The proprietor
was genuinely interested in the photographs
he showed him, and his comments, the
younger man recalled, were enormously helpful,
for Stieglitz "would look very attentively and
kindly tell me where they succeeded and where
they failed." Stieglitz offered general as well as
specific advice, persuading Strand to abandon
soft-focus effects:
This lens, as you're using it, makes
everything look as though it is made of
the same stuff: grass looks like water,
water looks as if it has the same quality
13