[Geometric Backyards, New York]

Paul Strand

1917 · Platinum print · Photographs

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.

Artist

Paul Strand

Date

1917

Medium

Platinum print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987