Paul Strand

Paul Strand is one of the influential photographers who helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. He lived from 1890-1976, and therefore, documented a wide range of subject matter and social changes over time.

Strand is also known as a modernist photographer. He used his work in a variety of ways and experimented with multiple modes of photography. He is widely known as a documentary photographer, but he also went beyond that.

He had a desire to promote photography as art and largely experimented with photographic abstractions, but he also used it as a tool for social reform. He was one of the founders of the Photo League- designed for photographers to promote their art toward political and social reforms.

His black and white imagery shows a vast knowledge of composition and use of light. His subject matter varies from people to landscapes, to experiments with shadows and abstract close-ups of objects. He seems to have mastered almost every area of photography and his photos are still very powerful today.

Charles Sheeler

Charles Sheeler was a modernist photographer who lived from 1883-1965. He was also a precisionist painter, an attribute that came out in his photography. He worked in the midst of the Industrial Age, which accounts for his subject matter.

Sheeler's work it very interesting in that at first glance, it seems simple and straightforward. But when you really look into it, you see that he is trying to convey certain messages. His images are mainly comprised of machinery and man-made material things and structures.

What is strangely ironic about his photography of these machines is that there is usually no sign of human presence. There are giant structures of iron and steel, obviously constructed by man, and yet no people are found around these machines. They stand alone is if they are just a part of nature and have always been there. His imagery really causes you to think.