Philadelphia Museum’s Must-See Paul Strand Show Opens Today

More than 3,000 prints from the Paul Strand Archive find a new home.

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Cobbler, Luzzara, Paul Strand 1953 (negative); 1953 (print), Gelatin silver print Image and sheet: 5 7/8 × 4 5/8 inches (15 × 11.8 cm), The Paul Strand Collection, gift of Marjorie and Jeffrey Honickman, 2012 © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
Fern, Georgetown, Maine, Paul Strand 1928 (negative); 1940s (print), Platinum print Image: 9 5/8 x 7 5/8 inches (24.4 x 19.4 cm), Sheet: 9 13/16 x 7 13/16 inches (24.9 x 19.9 cm) Mount: 10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm) The Paul Strand Collection, purchased with funds contributed by Barbara B. and Theodore R. Aronson, 2014 © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
Wall Street, New York, 1915 (negative); 1915 (print). Paul Strand, American, 1890 - 1976. Platinum print, Image: 9 3/4 × 12 11/16 inches (24.8 × 32.2 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Paul Strand Retrospective Collection, 1915-1975, gift of the estate of Paul Strand, 1980 © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
White Fence, Port Kent, New York, 1916 (negative); 1945 (print). Paul Strand, American, 1890 - 1976. Gelatin silver print, Image and sheet: 9 5/8 × 12 13/16 inches (24.5 × 32.5 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Paul Strand Retrospective Collection, 1915-1975, gift of the estate of Paul Strand, 1980. © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
Blind Woman, New York, 1916 (negative); 1945 (print). Paul Strand, American, 1890 - 1976. Gelatin silver print, Image: 12 3/4 × 9 3/4 inches (32.4 × 24.8 cm), The Paul Strand Collection, partial and promised gift of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest, 2009. © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
Cobweb in Rain, Georgetown, Maine, 1927 (negative); 1927 (print). Paul Strand, American, 1890 - 1976. Gelatin silver print, Image: 9 11/16 x 7 13/16 inches (24.6 x 19.8 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art, 125th Anniversary Acquisition, The Paul Strand Collection, The Lynne and Harold Honickman Gift of the Julien Levy Collection, 2001 © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
Church, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, 1931 (negative); 1931 (print). Paul Strand, American, 1890 - 1976. Platinum print, Image: 5 7/8 x 4 5/8 inches (15 x 11.7 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Paul Strand Collection, purchased with funds contributed by Barbara B. and Theodore R. Aronson, 2013. © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
Toward the Sugar House, Vermont, 1944 (negative); 1944 (print). Paul Strand, American, 1890 - 1976. Gelatin silver print, Image and sheet: 9 5/8 × 7 5/8 inches (24.4 × 19.4 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Paul Strand Collection, purchased with funds contributed by Barbara B. and Theodore R. Aronson, 2010. © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
Young Boy, Gondeville, Charente, France, 1951 (negative); mid- to late 1960s (print). Paul Strand, American, 1890 - 1976. Gelatin silver print, Image: 7 5/8 × 9 5/8 inches (19.4 × 24.4 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Paul Strand Collection, purchased with funds contributed by Tom Callan and Martin McNamara, 2012. © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
The Family, Luzzara (The Lusettis), 1953 (negative); mid- to late 1960s (print). Paul Strand, American, 1890 - 1976. Gelatin silver print, Image: 11 7/16 x 14 9/16 inches (29 x 37 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Paul Strand Collection, purchased with funds contributed by Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Hauslohner, 1972. © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
Anna Attinga Frafra, Accra, Ghana, 1964 (negative); 1964 (print). Paul Strand, American, 1890 - 1976. Gelatin silver print, Image: 7 5/8 × 9 5/8 inches (19.4 × 24.4 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Paul Strand Collection, purchased with The Henry McIlhenny Fund and other Museum funds, 2012. © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
Abstraction, Porch Shadows, Twin Lakes, Connecticut, Paul Strand 1916 (negative); 1950s (print), Gelatin silver print Image and sheet: 12 15/16 × 8 15/16 inches (32.9 × 22.7 cm) The Paul Strand Retrospective Collection, 1915-1975, gift of the estate of Paul Strand, 1980, © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
Market, Accra, Ghana, Paul Strand 1964 (negative); 1964 (print), Gelatin silver print Image and sheet: 7 5/8 × 9 5/8 inches (19.4 × 24.4 cm), Mount: 12 × 14 inches (30.5 × 35.6 cm) The Paul Strand Collection, partial and promised gift of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest, 2009, © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
Mr. Bolster, Weston, Vermont, Paul Strand 1943 (negative); 1943 (print), Gelatin silver print Image and sheet: 5 7/8 × 4 5/8 inches (14.9 × 11.7 cm) The Paul Strand Collection, partial and promised gift of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest, 2009 © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
Rebecca, New York, Paul Strand 1921 (negative); 1921 (print), Platinum print Image: 9 1/2 x 7 5/8 inches (24.1 x 19.4 cm), Sheet: 10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm) The Paul Strand Collection, partial and promised gift of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest, 2009 © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
Elizabethtown, New Mexico, Paul Strand 1930 (negative); 1930 (print), Platinum print Image: 9 5/8 x 7 5/8 inches (24.4 x 19.4 cm), Sheet: 9 15/16 x 8 inches (25.2 x 20.3 cm) The Paul Strand Collection, partial and promised gift of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest, 2009 © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
Women of Santa Ana, Lake Pátzcuaro, Mexico, Paul Strand 1933 (negative); 1933 (print), Platinum print Image and sheet: 4 11/16 × 5 7/8 inches (11.9 × 14.9 cm) The Paul Strand Collection, partial and promised gift of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest, 2009 © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation
Virgin, San Felipe, Oaxaca, Mexico, Paul Strand 1933 (negative); 1933 (print), Platinum print Image and sheet: 9 5/8 × 7 5/8 inches (24.4 × 19.3 cm) The Paul Strand Collection, partial and promised gift of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest, 2009 © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation

Tonight the Philadelphia Museum of Art will unveil a major retrospective, the first in nearly 50 years, devoted to the legendary American photographer Paul Strand.

Paul Strand: Master of Photography” will celebrate the recent acquisition of more than 3,000 prints from the Paul Strand Archive, making the museum the world’s largest and most comprehensive repository of the photographer’s work. That’s glad news for American lovers of photography.

The exhibition will explore the evolution in Strand’s work from his breakthrough moment in the 1920s, essentially as a social realist, to his broader, later vision of photography as a window on an evolving but always beautiful world and a powerful symbol of modern culture, which he helped shape over the course of his six-decade career.

Timothy Rub, the George D. Widener Director of the museum, said in a statement:

“Strand’s achievement was remarkable. The distinctive place he holds in the history of modern photography rests on his extraordinary artistic talent as well as his belief in the transformative power of the medium in which he chose to work. From his early experiments with street photography of New York to his sensitive portrayal of daily life in New England, Italy, and Ghana, Strand came to believe that the most enduring function of photography and his work as an artist was to reveal the essential nature of the human experience in a changing world. He was also a master craftsman, a rare and exacting maker of pictures.”

The show, which is happily traveling, will have its first stop at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, its second at Fotomuseum Winterthur in Swizerland, third at Fundación MAPFRE in Madrid, Spain, and lastly at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.

“Paul Strand: Master of Photography” will open on October 21 through Janurary 4, 2015 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.


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