One of the major strengths of Paul Strand’s work was that he
had the ability to capture powerful and captivating images of street
photographs. Street photography is more or less the art of capturing a socially
authentic moment, while treating the subject as though you (the photographer)
aren’t there. However, it is rather difficult to be totally blind toward an
extremely awkward individual catching a moment of your life in an instant. “Yet
photographers are never invisible eyes; they are situated bodies whose
intrusive physical presence often unsettles, provoking recognition,
performative posing, or challenge in the people they choose to photograph.” * If the subject were to
realize that a photograph was being taken of them or that they were being
documented, the entire dynamic of the social reality has an extremely high
chance of diminishing. Strand was able to not only capture an extremely
important moment in time but also work with geometric shapes found in reality.
He seamlessly displays this in his work of Wall Street. At the time of the
photograph Strand may have only been concerned about the apparent geometric
pattern that was form when the sun hit the side of a Wall Street building in
New York City. While visually exploring this image, it becomes inevitable to
notice the individuals that worked in that building. The portion of the photo
of the building and the portion with people in it combined, can double for a
document of life during the industrialization period of New York City. Strand
began to document New York City, the way it was growing, the large amounts of
people crowding the transportation ferries, and the skyscrapers beginning to
reach as high as Icarus reached. The exploration of the city led to the film
Manhatta. Strand and Sheeler together created a short film that documented New
York City at this time. When viewing, we
witness the people headed to work in packs, rushing to make it to the same
place b the same time, a typical norm of the culture of the New York of today.
* Whalan, Mark. “ The Majesty of the
Movement: Sociality and Privacy in the Street Photography of Paul Strand.” American Art, 25 (Summer 2011): 34-55.
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| Photo Credit: http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/73744.html |
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