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.