If I were into photography, I would know who Paul Strand was. But, I’m not, and I didn’t, not until now. It took a Groupon for reduced admission at the Philadelphia Museum of Art for me to discover that there was such a man as Paul Strand, and that for several months in the early 1960s he spent time in Ghana taking portraits of it’s peoples on the crossroads of modernity.
Paul Strand: Master of Modern Photography runs only in Philadelphia in the US until Jan 4th 2015 at which point it goes to Europe. Aren’t I lucky to have been able to catch it?!
Paul Strand is largely credited for turning photography into an art form. He had been invited to document Ghana by President Kwame Nkrumah himself, and his photographs culminated into a book Ghana: An African Portrait. In it, he shows the diversity in the people. He shows history and the present struggling with each other. Men at a town hall meeting, some wearing full traditional attire, some wearing western clothing, and some a mix of both. Construction of a wing of Korle-Bu Hospital. Workers at the Tema Oil Refinery.
He introduces each person by name though I have refrained from doing so myself. Makes obvious their humanity, one that we all share. Staring into the eyes of each of his subjects, you wonder who they were, how they lived, and you yearn to learn more. I found that this was true of all his portraits, from New York City, to Mexico, to Luzarra, Italy. Each and every single one a soulful image.
The entire collection is well worth a visit to the Museum. The last exhibition of his work was apparently in 1971. This collection spans his entire career, and includes screenings of a couple of his films as well as the actual cameras he used throughout his life. It starts with street pictures, entirely candid and pedestrain, then takes you through abstract work, silhouettes and shadows including Wall Street, New York (1915), a few meditative nature shots, then his travel portraits.
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A lover of mangoes. A woman - smart, without pretense, lefthanded, Afropolitan - navigating this thing called life. An unapologetic believer in social justice and karma. Choosing to radiate positive energy and be true to myself. Here, my musings.
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