Paul Strand -- Happy Birthday -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

Paul Strand (October 16, 1890 – March 31, 1976) was an American artist who helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century.

Paul Strand took up photography in New York City during the 1910's. Not long after, he had established a reputation of both a photographer and a painter. He traveled to New Mexico in 1926 to photograph the landscapes, architecture, and native culture of the country and also produced a film about fishermen for the Mexican government in 1834. He also collaborated with Charles Sheeler on the film, “Manhatta” about urban life. By 1934, Strand had returned to New York and began working in theater and filmmaking.  He moved to Europe in the early 1950’s where he spent time in Northern Italy and Scotland. In the 1960’s, Strand traveled across North and West Africa. Strand became known as an advocate of the new realism called "straight" photography. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, mounted its first full-scale retrospective of a contemporary photographer with the work of Strand in 1945. His last years were spent working in close collaboration with his third wife, Hazel Kingsbury. He died after a long illness in 1976 at his home in Orgeval, France.

Paul Strand website