In Focus: Paul Strand: Photographs from The J. Paul Getty Museum

by Anne M. Lyden

Paul Strand (1890-1976) 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.

Genres: Photography

146 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 2005

Reviews

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the format of this book--images from the Getty Museum with commentary followed by a symposium discussing some of the images in the book. Strand is obviously an important figure in the history of photography, though there aren't very many of his pictures that i find compelling. I will probably try other books in this series and look for books relating to aspects of Strand's career.