Paul Strand (October 16, 1890 – March 31, 1976) was an American photographer who helped to establish photography as an art form. He was introduced to photography in high school by his teacher Lewis Hine. He was inspired to become a photographer when the school took a trip to Alfred Stieglitz's Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession. He developed his style of photographing: movement in the city, abstractions, and street portraits, due to the criticisms of his mentor.
He wanted to make "portraits of people such as you see in the New York parks and places, sitting around, without their being conscious of being photographed. … I felt that one could get a quality of being through the fact that the person did not know he was being photographed … [and I wanted to capture] these people within an environment which they themselves had chosen to be in, or were in anyway.”
Some of my favorite photographs of Paul Strand are:
Image 1: The reason I like this photo is mostly because of the dog in it. I also like the lighting, how the girl is sitting in a middle light with some brighter lights reflecting off her left side.
Image 2: I like the look that Strand captured on the little girls face. She has a look of innocent sadness or longing. The image it's self gives an air of classic vintage.
Image 3: Probably my favorite image out of the three. I love the shadow, the way the lines of it are so detailed. The two all dark figures add an air of mystery to the photo.
