Strand had purchased the movie camera only days before he photographed it. His delight in the finely tooled instrument with which he planned to earn his living is evident in the series of photographs he made. This one shows the film-movement mechanism inside the clamshell case. That the camera is depicted upside-down is not irrelevant; the picture works only this way.
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Julien Levy; Mrs. Julien (Jean) Levy donated to Anthology Film Archives (January, 1984); [Pace/MacGill Gallery]; John C. Waddell (January, 1984).
MoMA Registrar's label on back of original frame bears number "40.5015". John Waddell states that in a January 1984 conversation, Susan Kismaric of MoMA explained that this print was received by the Museum in 1940 for possible inclusion in "Sixty Photographs - A Survey of Camera Aesthetics", December 1940 - January 1941, but was not hung in the exhibition. Signed in pencil on overmat below image, recto LR: "Paul Strand". Mat subsequently removed.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 23–December 31, 1989.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 28–April 22, 1990.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 10–July 15, 1990.
High Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 5–April 28, 1991.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 8–August 4, 1991.
IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia. "The New Vision, IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia," January 20, 1995–March 26, 1995.
Victoria and Albert Museum. "Art Deco 1910-1939," March 27, 2003–July 28, 2003.
Royal Ontario Museum. "Art Deco 1910-1939," September 15, 2003–January 4, 2004.
Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Art Deco 1910-1939," March 13, 2004–July 5, 2004.
Victoria and Albert Museum. "Modernism," April 6, 2006–July 23, 2006.
MARTa Herford. "Modernism," September 16, 2006–January 7, 2007.
Corcoran Gallery of Art. "Modernism," March 17, 2007–July 18, 2007.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand," November 8, 2010–April 10, 2011.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Reimagining Modernism - Photographs Rotation 12," June 25, 2018–January 1, 2019.
Hambourg, Maria Morris. The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars, Ford Motor Company Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. no. 13.
Paul Strand (American, New York 1890–1976 Orgeval, France)
1933, printed 1940
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