Modernism and the work of Paul Strand

1. Modernism,
Abstraction and
the work of Paul
Strand
Daisy Small

2. INTRODUCTION
The aim for this Related Study is to investigate and define the modernist aesthetic. As part of my Personal
Investigation I have explored abstract photography. My related study will provide deeper understanding into
the approach and strategies used modernist photographers. As part of my Related Study I will look into the
work of Paul Strand and Edward Weston. They were both modernist, however, they both had different
approaches. Paul strand was inspired by man made structures, Weston was inspired by natural forms.
Through focused investigation, I hope to gain greater understanding of the way modernist photographers
which will provide me with deeper understanding into the themes in my portfolio.

3. 1858
Fading Away
Artist: Henry
Peach
Robinson
1893
Winter on
Fifth Avenue
Artist: Alfred
Stieglitz
1904
The Pond
Artist: Edward
Steichen
1932
Human
Relations
Artist: William
Mortensen
1899
Blessed Art
Thou Among
Women
Artist: Gertrude
Käsebier
1907
The Steerage
Artist: Alfred
Stieglitz
1930
Pepper No.
30
Artist: Edward
Weston
1945
Accused Gestapo
Informer, Dessau,
Germany
Artist: Henri Cartier-
Bresson
1959
La Palangana
Artist: Francisco
Ontañón
This is the most
interesting part
because as one
ends another one
begins.
TIMELINE
From Pictorial to
modernism?

4. Before Modernism there was pictorialism

5. Before Modernism there
was Pictorialism
Introduction – What was it?
Pictorialism was between 1885 to
1915. this included photographs,
painting, drawing. Pictorialism was
known as “represented both a
photographic aesthetic and a set of
principles about photography's
role as art.”
There are serval main photographers
in pictorialism. There is Julia
Margaret Cameron, Alfred Stieglitz
and Edward Steichen. These are well
known photographers which made
people understand what pictorialism
meant and also what it looked like.

6. This photograph was
made to look like a
painting by using
Pictorialism, an approach to
photography that
emphasizes beauty of
subject matter, tonality,
and composition rather than
the documentation of
reality.
What is aesthetic photography?
Aesthetic photography is a photographic
practice of capturing visual beauty
within an image.
Aesthetic photos aim to utilize visual
characteristics such as colour, composition,
lighting, and subject matter to create a
visually pleasing photograph.
Blue and
yellow and
orange tint
Grain and texture
reminiscent to a canvas
painting
Soft focus
creates hazy
dreamlike
feel
The reflected lake
enhances the
dreamlike quality of
the scene
Dark and light
figures
Before Modernism there
was Pictorialism
Defining the pictorial aesthetic
Pictorial aesthetic is
“an approach to photography that
emphasizes beauty of subject
matter, tonality, and composition
rather than the documentation of
reality”

7. The Transition
from Pictorial
to Modernist
Modernism is giving up old
ways in pursuit of new methods.
Contrasts to the previous
method, pictorialism, as photos
were then in soft focus but using
modernism photographers had
sharp focus and lots of detail in
their work. Pictorialism made
photographs looks like
paintings.

8. The Flatiron1904
Edward J. Steichen
This picture is interesting as
the Flatron Building in NYC is
an example of Modernist
architecture.
The way Siegle has taken this
picture is very much in the
style of a pictorialist.
This give off a really nice way
of visually showing the
transition between Pictorial
and Modernist
Pictorial Aesthetic
Printed using coloured inks,
the photograph captures the
interplay between the natural
tree branches, the rainy
streets, and the newly built
Flatiron Building, one of the
tallest buildings in New York
at the time.
Eli Siegel:
All beauty is a making one of opposites,
and the making one of op- posites is
what we are going after in our- selves.
The Transition from Pictorial to
Modernist
Comparing Pictorial & Modernist Aesthetics
Alfred Stieglitz, The
Flatiron1903,
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/267803

9. Modernism– A type of photography where
images were sharply focused. These images
focused on having a high contrast between
light and dark, showing texture and geometric
shapes, and for having sharp lines.
The Transition from Pictorial to
Modernist
What is the difference between Modernism and
Pictorialism?
Pictorialism– A form of
photography dominated in
the 19th and 20th
centuries. It was a process
when photographers
edited and changed a
photo to make it look more
like an art piece such as a
painting. They tend to
blur the focus of the image
blending its
contents together.

10. MODERNIST APPROACH
“The camera should be used for a
recording of life for rendering the very
substance and quintessence if the thing
itself…..”
Edward Weston
PICTORIAL APPROACH
“A work of art must be a
transcription, not a copy, of
nature….”
Robert Demachy
The Transition from Pictorial to
Modernist
What is the difference between Modernism and
Pictorialism?
Artist: George Davison Artist: Edward Weston

11. MODERNIST PHOTOGRAPHY
Straight Photography Aesthetics

12. MODERNIST PHOTOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION
Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art
promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making
photography an accepted art form
Modernism started in ;ate 19th century an then continued
into thee mid 20th century. The peak of modernism was in
the 1960s.
The father of modernist as they say is William Henry Fox
Talbot. He is well known in modernist photography.
He is best known for his development of the calotype
Williams work.
Though invented in the 1830s, it wasn’t until the 1920s that
photography came into its own as an artistic medium.
Photographers began to embrace its social, political and aesthetic
potential, experimenting with light, perspective and developing, as
well as new subjects and abstraction. Coupled with movements in
painting, sculpture and architecture, these works became known as
‘modernist photography’.

13. Straight photography is also
known as “Straight Aesthetic”
this means that they only focus is
on composition, shape, line, and
form
Straight photography is either in
the taking of the image or by
darkroom or digital processes,
but sharply depict the scene or
subject as the camera sees it.
The Photographs are often
not manipulated, unlike
the pictorialism. They will be left
on how they are and how they
have been seen by the
photographer.
Straight photographers visualized the image
before taking the photo. Edward Weston defined
this term in 1921 and stated: "Get your lighting
and exposure correct at the start and both the
developing and printing can be practically
automatic."
MODERNIST AESTHETIC
WHAT IS STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY?
Modernist photography celebrated the camera as
an essentially mechanical tool. Critic Sadakichi
Hartmann’s 1904 ‘Plea for a Straight Photography’
heralded this new approach, rejecting the soft
focus and painterly quality of and encouraging
straightforward images of modern life. Common
characteristics of modernist images include clean
lines, sharp focus and repetition of form.

14. PAUL STRAND
Paul Strand was one of the
early pioneers of
Modernist Photography
and the Straight
Photography aesthetic
“The material of the artist
lines not within himself…
but in the world around
him”

15. Paul Strand has been called the biggest,
widest, most commanding talent in the
history of American photography. Strand
was famed for his landscapes and taken
across America including Manie, Colorado,
New Mexico and Canada.
CANDID PORTRAITS
Strand was one of the first
photographers to use the
candid camera technique.
The most clever thing
about these pictures is that
the people he was taking
pictures off didn’t know.
He used a mounted lend at
a 90-degree angel which
made it unknown to the
people that they was
having there pictures done
. This made it effective
because it would be pure
reality of what that person
is doing.
MODERNIST PHOTOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION TO PAUL STRAND
Strand’s covers different genre and
subjects from different areas of world
like America, Europe and Africa.
His worked also focused on love and
respect for humanity
and peoples cultures.
Strand focused on three principles
on photography, they were
movement in the city, abstraction
and street portrait.

16. MODERNIST AESTHETIC
INTRODUCTION TO PAUL STRAND AND CHARACTERISTICS
OF STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY?
Paul strand does all his shots close up
which makes it more effective of the
light and shadows.
He wants to make his composition of
overlapping shapes and the structure od
a object.
It almost makes it look an seem
abstracted and is not easy to see what
the picture is.
He likes all his work to be sharp and in
focus. He doesn’t like his work to be
blurry or unfocused images.
Paul Strand is known as the biggest, widest, most
commanding talent in the history of American
photography.
Paul strand done close up parallel shots he take
ordinary picture of people in the streets at the end
of 1916 which border on social documentary.
Strand discovered "straight photography," and took
pictures of street portraits to city scenes, machine
forms, and plants with his “distinctive clarity,
precision, and geometric form.”
Wall Street - 1916

17. As soon as Paul strand
met Stieglitz he got
influenced and was
exposed to all of his
work. He then realised
he wanted to make his
work similar, he took
some of techniques
and styles and pit
them into his own
work.
MODERNIST PHOTOGRAPHY
STRAND MEETS STIEGLTZ
Paul Strand White Fence
1916
Stieglitz
The Steerage1907
Both these pictures are good with the framing. This is because it shows the main
elements of the picture and makes it interesting.
Paul Strand has a straight forward point of view which makes you see all of the
picture. I like the more straight forward type of photos which both of these pictures
are.
In Paul Strands picture the fence is really close to the camera which makes it seem
like the focus point and main point.
In Stieglitz picture their is a lot going on which. Makes you look more into the
picture than you normally would. I think sometimes too much in a pictures makes
you nit really take interest but in this case I think it is effective.
In both pictures there are loads of straight lines which make your eyes go to a point.
These pictures are really clear and make you see things how they are.
Both pictures look really run down and not as bright as other pictures. It is all white
and greys and really soft looking. There is no harsh bits of the picture apart from the
strong lines. There are also a lot of mid tones between the dark greys and white.
The Steerage1907
As proprietor of the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession
and publisher of the photographic journals Camera Notes
and Camera Work, Alfred Stieglitz was a major force in the
promotion and elevation of photography as a fine art in
America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. The Steerage is considered Stieglitz's signature
work, and was proclaimed by the artist and illustrated in
histories of the medium as his first "modernist"
photograph. It marks Stieglitz's transition away from
painterly prints of Symbolist subjects to a more
straightforward depiction of quotidian life

18. With his pictures he always puts two of
the main focuses of the picture in front of
the picture so people are more likely to
look at that then look at the background.
This way people get more drawn into the
picture.
The horse and the people are
the main focus of this picture. It
has many layers which makes
you look deeper into it. Then
he has really big cloud at the
back. When elements are
placed close to the edge this
makes you eye draw into it
more.
MODERNIST AESTHETIC
CHARACTERISTICS OF STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY?

19. EDWARD WESTON
“Is love like art -
something always ahead,
never quite attained...”
Edward Weston

20. Edward Weston created all his pictures using the straight
photography approach. This means that he takes picture of things
as they are. He wouldn’t change the picture or object he would
keep it the same and photography it.
Edward Weston is a American photographer which began his
career in chica go parks in 1902. the following year his work
was shown in art institute. He is best known for his use of
natural forms and landscape and how sharp his images are.
MODERNIST AESTHETIC
Introduction to Edward Weston
This is a timeline of some of the work
he has made and all the years they
were brought out. It also shows what
places it was showed at.
Shows the key points of his life and
where it all started.
Edward Weston
includes landscape,
still life, nudes,
portraits, genre
scenes.
CONNECTIONS WITH STIEGLITZ
Just like Strand, Weston was inspired
by Stiegliztz. When he first started
his work he got influenced by
Alfred Stieglitz. He wanted to. Make his
work similar and to try and copy what
he does.
He looked at Stieglitz work for a long
time and researched how he achieved
his pictures. Weston became a
successful photographer because of his
working in soft focus and pictorial style
work.

21. Edward Weston monograph is all
about him and his photography
work.
His book is filled with all sharply
focused images of natural forms,
landscapes and nudes.
In this book it is full of is work
and quotes which match the
picture.
It shows all his work and also
puts his work in chronological
order
This record book is
where all Weston's
quotes came from. This
is the original book
where it all started.
Then he used the
quotes and put them
into he final book.
MODERNIST AESTHETIC
Edward Weston Monograph
“I have been a photography our toilet, that
glossy enameled receptacle of extraordinary
beauty. It might be surprised that I am in
cynical mood to approach such subject matter
when I might be doing beautiful women or
“gods out of doors” – or even considered that
my mid hold was absolutely aesthetic
response to form. For long have considered
photographing this useful and elegant
accessor to modern hygiene life, but not until I
actually contemplated its image on its image
on my ground glass did I realize the
possibilities before me. I was thrilled”
The monograph is filled
with insights from his
notebooks which they have
paired with the
photographs taken. Here is
an example below

22. “I have my own room barricaded,- for there,
are two shells delicately balanced to- gather
awaiting the afternoon light. My first version of
the combination was done Sunday: Monday a
slight turn of one shell, and I gained strength:
Wednesday the second proof decided me to
try a light ground with the same
arrangement,- but desiring to repeat, I again
saw more clearly”
From Weston's Monograph
MODERNIST AESTHETIC
Edward Weston's Natural Forms
The angle of the
picture is straight on
which gives you a full
view of the picture
and what it is.
I like how all the lines are
clean and the curves give
off a really good effect.
It like how harsh it looks
and how the greys and
whites really go way
together.
The manipulation of the light
makes the shell looks really
shiny and makes the light
bounce off it.
Shells - 1972

23. Black-and-white
tones
Illumination from above.
The different shapes
in it
Light and dark
shades
The curves
Lighting
“I write white a half
house exposure is being
staged a pepper the sole
actor. Ramiel persists in
bringing new peppers
nearly every day, despite
my warning that we
will soon live on wind and
water if I am not allowed to
work on orders,- and how
can I when ten or more of
the most amazing forms.
Intrigue me!”
Pepper No. 30 is a black
and white photograph
and is one of the best-
known photographs taken
Weston
MODERNIST AESTHETIC
Edward Weston's Peppers

24. Paul Strand,
Lave Machine
1923 Edward Weston, Peper #30
1930
MODERNIST AESTHETIC
Comparison Between Edward Weston and Paul Strand
Both have the same approach
but just different subjects.
Uses man made
machines
Looks more into the
natural things in life
Both modernism photographers
looks into the surface
detail
influential

25. CONLUSION
When I looked back into my aims at the beginning of the project I want to have a good understanding
of modernist photography and have examples of what it is. I have used a lot of recourses to gathering
information and to help me understand what I will be writing about I used a really good book all about
Edward Weston, this gave me a lot of good information about what I can add and key points about
him.
I found found this really interesting exploring how photography has changed over the years and what
it was like compare to now. I have researched and discovered how people have taken there pictures
and then produced them.
I have compared how the photography has changed and what style of photography the photographers
have used.

26. BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
• Edward Weston book
Written by Edward Weston
Published in 2022
• Photography visiowaries
• Published in 2015
• Written by Mary Warner Marien
• Photobook
• Written by Roberto Koch
• The genis of phtotgrpahy
• Written by Gerry Badger
• Piublizhed 2011
WEBSITES
• https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pstd/hd_pstd.ht
m
• https://iphf.org/inductees/paul-strand/
• https://edward-weston.com/
• https://www.westongallery.com/original-works-
by/edward-weston
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-H-
Evans
• https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artist/frederick-h-
evans
• https://www.theartstory.org/movement/straight-
photography/
• https://www.theartstory.org/movement/modern-
photography/
• https://joselitobengua.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/ph
otographic-art-movement-modernist-photography/
• https://www.artic.edu/artworks/120835/shells
ttps://scalar.chapman.edu/scalar/ah-331-history-of-photography-
spring-2021-compendium/cailin-zarate-essay-3
https://www.britannica.com/technology/Pictorialism