On my weekend trip to London to visit the Photo London Fair, the first exhibition I went to see was Paul Strand at the V&A and it was one of the best exhibitions I had seen in the last couple of month. Maybe I was kind of affected because I really like Strands photography, but the exhibition was very well curated showing an interesting and extensive selection of his works. The other way around it’s easy to get disappointed having the expectation of a mind-blowing exhibition. Howsoever, Paul Strand was one of the greatest and most influential photographers of the 20th century whose images have defined the way fine art and documentary photography is understood and practiced today. The V&A curated a journey through Paul Strands life and departed his works into six periods:
The White Fence, Port Kent, 1916
I. A Modern Vision: The first room shows Strands early work where he was influenced by pictorialistic works by Alfred Steglitz. In the 1910’s he explored a variety of subjects e.g. modern city, people and abstract photography. On the way to the second room you can sit down and watch his movie Manhatta from 1921.
II. Looking at Nature: In 1919 Strand started to use a large format camera what brought more clarity into his pictures, so he started to take a lot of nature photographs.
III. Intimate Portraits: In 1922 he bought a his first film camera a Akeley Motion Picture Camera. He was in love with his camera and his wife so he took numerous intimate portraits of both, the camera and the woman.
Exhibition View, Paul Strand Rendes 1936
IV. America, Canada & Mexico: Strand was a traveller. In the 1920’s and 1930’s he toured trough America, Canada and Mexico. When he moved to Mexico in 1932 he got involved with the local socialist politics. He shot two critical short films: Redes (The Wave) 1936 that tells the story of a group of Mexican fisherman striking and Native Land 1942 that doesn’t dread showing cruelty and violence to raise awareness for the the civil liberties violations in the US.
Young Boy, Paul Strand, 1951
V. Portraits of Places: From 1945 Strand travelled around the US, Europe and Asia for numerous book projects. His choice of places was mainly politically motivated. In addition to the photographs his books about places and its people are displayed in showcases.
VI. At Home in Orgeval: Paul Stand spent the last 26 years of his life (New York 1890 – 1976 Orgeval) with his wife in the small french village of Orgeval. For the first time in his live he had his own darkroom in his house. He lived a quiet life exploring nature in his photographs.
The exhibition is on until 3. July 2016 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
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