Ode to Paul Strand

Paul Strand has always been one of my favorite photographers, the above photo of the church is one of my earlier photos, greatly inspired by Strand’s work. I recently picked up the book Paul Strand: Sixty Years of Photographs from the library. It is a wonderful collection of Strand’s work and life which contributed so much to the world of photography, as an art form and a way of expressing one’s self.

The back half of the book outlines his life and travels and includes many quotes and comments from Strand and how he struggled with photography at different points, how to tell stories and even his thoughts on what would make the perfect camera. Strand appears to have been very thoughtful especially when it comes to art. I’ll leave with this quote of his:

“It is not necessary that the world be full of painters, but it should be full of artists, that is to say, of human beings who consciously bring to their work, whatever it may be, the attitude and qualities which we find in the free and spontaneous expression of the child.

It is precisely the problem of education to prevent the atrophy and corruption of these impulses in the growing generations, if ever we are to have a human society which creates life instead of destroying it and itself — which seeks to give rather than possess, which can meet the problems of adult life with feeling and thinking, uncorrupted by conventional, outworn, and regimented patterns”

-Paul Strand, 1932