Blind Woman, New York

Paul Strand

1916 · Platinum print · Photographs

In 1916 Strand made a series of candid street portraits with a handheld camera fitted with a false lens attached to its side, allowing him to point the camera in one direction while actually taking the photograph in another. This seminal image of a street peddler was published in 1917 in Alfred Stieglitz's magazine Camera Work. It immediately became an icon of the new American photography, which integrated the humanism of social documentation with the boldly simplified forms of modernism. This large platinum print is the only known vintage exhibition print of this image.

Artist

Paul Strand

Date

1916

Medium

Platinum print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1933