New England.Conceived during World War II, text
and image were designed so that the photographs
would not illustrate the words, but both together
would embody the history of the nation’s democratic
heritage as it had developed in New England. Strand
discovered that his cinema experience was useful in
laying out the images, so despite his disappointment
with the book’s production, it became the model for
the later publications that the photographer con-
ceived and executed after he moved to France in
1950 with his third wife, Hazel Kingsbury.
The move, occasioned by the ungenerous politi-
cal climate prevailing in the United States at the
time, provided Strand with a 25-year period of
remarkable activity in terms of both still images
and book publication. Initially, he aimed to create
a portrait of a single French village, basing this idea
loosely on the much earlier American classic of
poetry entitledSpoon River Anthology. But in criss-
crossing France in search of an ideal location, he
produced instead a portrait of an entire nonindus-
trial people. The publication that resulted, La
France de Profil, written and designed by Claude
Roy, evokes a sense of a rural country lovingly
depicted but already about to disappear.
The single village for which Strand had unsuc-
cessfully searched in France did materialize in 1954
in Luzzara, Italy; it was the birthplace of neo-rea-
list screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, who supplied the
text for Strand’s next venture entitledUn Paese.In
the 1950s and early 60s, Strand also traveled to the
Hebrides Islands, to Egypt at the invitation of Pres-
ident Nasser, and to Ghana at the behest of Pres-
ident Nkrumah. The resulting publications—all
but the one on Ghana designed by Strand—
affirmed his belief in the published photograph in
book format as a vehicle that might reach a wide
audience. All the while, he photographed also in
the garden at his home in Orgeval, a small village
some 35 kilometers west of Paris. While in France,
he also made portraits of well-known figures in the
arts and sciences, among them the painters Georges
Braque and Paolo Picasso, and chemist Ire`ne
Joliot-Curie, with the expectation, unfulfilled, of
creating a book that would conjoin the flowers of
French culture with actual botanical examples.
After a debilitating illness, Strand died in March
1976 in his home in Orgeval. Besides the publica-
tions he supervised on his own, he left enough
material for his publisher, Aperture, to produce
five additional books of photographs and texts.
Strand’s concept of photographic art and his
attitude toward its dissemination have been mat-
ters of confusion because he seemed to harbor two
somewhat opposed ideas. From the first, he de-
manded extraordinarily high prices for individual
prints, both in platinum and silver, arguing, as his
mentor Stieglitz had, that photographic art merited
the same respect in the marketplace as works of
hand-made graphic art. But his conviction that art
should not be confined to an elite audience impelled
him also to seek formats that would bring his work
to the attention of a wider, less affluent public.
When making motion pictures proved impractical,
he settled on book publication as a democratic
instrument and one over which he could exercise
the kind of control that he felt the artist must retain.
Thus, he found the means to realize, consciously or
otherwise, the precepts about art and its social use
handed down in his earliest experiences with Hine
and Stieglitz.
NaomiRosenblum
Seealso:An American Place; Hine, Lewis; History
of Photography: Twentieth-Century Pioneers;
Museum of Modern Art; Photo League; Sheeler,
Charles; Stieglitz, AlfredBiography
Born in New York City, 1890. Studied with Lewis Hine at
Ethical Culture School. Met Alfred Stieglitz and became
a member of Photo-Secession. Had first exhibition at
Gallery 291 in 1916 and was featured in two final issues
ofCamera Work. Worked as independent cinematogra-
pher during 1920s, while making and exhibiting still
photographs. Devoted himself to documentary filmmak-
ing in Mexico and United States, 1933 to 1941. Returned
to still photography early 1940s and produced first book.
Removed to France, 1950; continued with book projects
in France 1950, Italy, 1954; Hebrides Islands, 1954;
Egypt 1959; Ghana 1963/64. Also traveled to RomaniaPaul Strand, Street Scene, New York, from ‘‘Camera
Work,’’ 1917.
[#Re ́union des Muse ́es Nationaux/Art Resource, New York]STRAND, PAUL