This picture is among the first photographic abstractions to be made intentionally. When Alfred Stieglitz published a variant of it in "Camera Work," he praised Strand's results as "the direct expression of today." Porch shadows and tipped-over tables are not intrinsically modern, but Strand's picture of them is, for it does not depend upon recognizable imagery for its effect, but rather on the precise relations of forms within the frame. This print, the only one Strand seems to have made from the negative, is on Satista paper, a wartime replacement for platinum papers.
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Inscription: Signed in pencil on mount, recto, lower right beneath image: "-Paul Strand. 1916-"
[Robert Miller Gallery, New York]; John C. Waddell, New York (April 7, 1984)
John Waddell states that Van Deren Coke provided the following information: This is a contact print on Satista paper (made by the Platinotype Company during WWI as a substitute for unavailable platinum papers) from an enlarged negative. Susan Harris (Arts Magazine, April 1985) states that this picture was made with a British Ensign Reflex camera producing 3-1/4 x 4-1/4" negatives, here enlarged by projection to make a larger negative for this contact print.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 23–December 31, 1989.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 28–April 22, 1990.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 10–July 15, 1990.
High Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 5–April 28, 1991.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 8–August 4, 1991.
IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia. "The New Vision, IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia," January 20, 1995–March 26, 1995.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Paul Strand: Circa 1916," June 19, 1998–September 15, 1998.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Charles Sheeler's Contemporaries," June 3–August 17, 2003.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand," November 8, 2010–April 10, 2011.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Photography between the Wars: Selections from the Ford Motor Company Collection." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Spring 1988). p. 10.
Hambourg, Maria Morris. The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars, Ford Motor Company Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. no. 95.
Hambourg, Maria Morris. Paul Strand: Circa 1916. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998. no. 27.
Barro, Lisa. "The Deterioration of Paul Strand's Satista Prints." Topics in Photographic Preservation 10 (2003). pp. 37–54.
Baker, Simon, and Emmanuelle de l'Ecotais, ed. Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art. London: Tate Publishing, 2018. p. 29 (variant).
Paul Strand (American, New York 1890–1976 Orgeval, France)
1933, printed 1940
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