Paul Strand

Along with Edward Weston and Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand helped define early American modernist photography. Strand was introduced to the medium by the renowned social documentarian Lewis Hine, who taught him that the photograph could be a powerful tool to better humanity—a position that inspired Strand to start the socially conscious Photo League cooperative in New York in 1936. Strand developed his own mature aesthetic vision and captured posed and candid street portraits and scenes of urban hustle and bustle, as well as formal abstractions. Today, Strand’s work regularly sells for six-figure prices on the secondary market. The photographer has been the subject of exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Museo Reina Sofía, among other institutions.