Near the end of World War I,
Paul Strand abandoned soft-focus imagery and produced his first body of sharp
focus work. Alfred Stieglitz was the first to recognize the breakthrough his
work represented, writing that Strand “has actually added some original vision
to photography.” Strand’s unflinching studies of the mundane architecture,
beggars, and street scenes of New York City, as well as industrial tools such
as the lathe pictured here, were shockingly new subjects for fine art. Through
his extraordinary command of formal composition, Strand brought elegance to the
ordinary.