Paul Strand: The Life And Work Of The Artist

11 Pages 2783 Words

nings. He was already a big part of a nonconformist group of artists and fed up with the prudity and materialism of middle class American society.
Strand later wrote off his association with the Club as a solely opportunistic one. He felt it was convenient and practical for a novice photographer to have it’s resources at hand. However, he had gone along with the Club’s conservative direction and standards. He was very in-tune with the mainstream photographers’ conventions. They often used soft lenses and enlarged negatives, giving their pictures a hazy, less defined look. It was a style that was nowhere to be found in Strands later works, and one he and his contemporaries would do away with altogether in their photographic era. (Rosenblaum 34-35)
The artist began to spend more time around other photographers in the Photo-Secession movement, which was influenced heavily by cubist and modern art, and artists such as Matisse and Picasso. The artist himself said that he was interested in “the organization of forms, each o...