Paul Strand (1890 – 1976) was an American photographer and filmmaker who helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. His work covers numerous genres and subjects throughout America, Europe and Africa. Strand was an early icon of the “straight photography school”. In contrast to Pictorialism, “straight photography” was a move to “pure photography” which was loosely defined as having stylistic traits that were not manipulated heavy to mimic other art forms such as painting.

My Favourite Photograph

In this photograph it appears that Strand has used and manipulated natural light in order to capture this photographed. He has used the structure of man-made structures against the daylight to create contrast and shapes within the photograph. It appears that a deep depth of field was used as the whole of the photograph is sharp and in focus. A shutter speed of 1/20-1/80 will have been used for this photograph along with an ISO of 100/200/400 to allow enough light to enter the lens whilst keeping the photograph as high-quality as possible. There is a slightly warm and old-fashioned undertone to this photograph.

There is not colour in this photograph – only a warm black and white undertone. This gives an old-fashioned, industrial feeling to the photograph and makes it feel more dramatic. There is lots of contrast between the shadows and the ground which creates a wide range of tones, this adds more drama to the photograph. There is a dirty/dusty texture in this photograph which adds to the industrial feeling of it. It is a flat 2D image mostly due to the focus being the 2D shadows. The shadows create lots of patterns and shapes in the photograph making it more interesting to look at.