Paul Strand American
1916
This picture is among the first photographic abstractions to be made intentionally. When Alfred Stieglitz published a variant of it in “Camera Work,” he praised Strand’s results as “the direct expression of today.” Porch shadows and tipped-over tables are not intrinsically modern, but Strand’s picture of them is, for it does not depend upon recognizable imagery for its effect, but rather on the precise relations of forms within the frame. This print, the only one Strand seems to have made from the negative, is on Satista paper, a wartime replacement for platinum papers.
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