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[Geometric Backyards, New York]

Paul Strand American
1917
Not on view
Strand’s small yard on West Eighty-Third Street was nothing much: a fenced-in plot with a few trees. When　he first photographed it in 1913, he had shown it in springtime, softening his focus on trees in full flower. Four years later, the yard’s simple configuration of dirt, fence, and flora was consistent as ever. But Strand’s eye had evolved. Awakened to Cubist paintings and Japanese prints, he apprehended the familiar space as a field of light, shadow, and sublime geometry. His earlier picture was cloying, with only an errant streak of empty clothesline anticipating the composition to come. Returning in 1917, he observes from above, finding instead a bright white sheet expectant with possibilities.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: [Geometric Backyards, New York]
  • Artist: Paul Strand (American, New York 1890–1976 Orgeval, France)
  • Date: 1917
  • Medium: Platinum print
  • Dimensions: Image: 24.6 × 32.6 cm (9 11/16 × 12 13/16 in.)
    Sheet: 25.5 × 33.3 cm (10 1/16 × 13 1/8 in.)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987
  • Object Number: 1987.1100.12
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Aperture Foundation, Inc., Paul Strand Archive
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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