Abstract

Paul Strand defined twentieth-century American photography in a prolific career that spanned more than sixty years. His photographs explore the abstract and dynamic qualities found in the natural world, search for humanity in portraits of people and places, and document the experience of life itself. Highlighting the development of the photographer's aesthetic from his early encounters with Cubism to his humanistic depictions of people throughout the world, this book presents nearly forty years of Strand's wide-ranging and powerful work. In Focus: Paul Strand is published to coincide with an exhibition of the photographer's work at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles from May 10 through September 4, 2005. Commentaries on the pictures, along with an introduction and chronology of Strand's life, are provided by Anne Lyden, associate curator of photographs at the Getty Museum. The book also includes an edited transcript of a colloquium on Strand's work that incorporates Lyden's contributions along with those of five other participants: David Featherstone, a freelance writer and editor; Weston Naef, curator of photographs at the Getty Museum; Naomi Rosenblum, independent scholar; Mark Ruwedel, photographer and professor of photography at California State University, Long Beach; and Alan Trachtenberg, Neil Gray Jr. Professor Emeritus of English and American Studies at Yale University.