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Porch Shadows

A work made of silver-platinum print.
© Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation

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  • A work made of silver-platinum print.

Date:

1916

Artist:

Paul Strand
American, 1890–1976

About this artwork

Paul Strand spent the summer of 1916 at his family’s cottage in Twin Lakes, Connecticut, attempting to give his understanding of Cubist art—abstraction through fragmentation, multiple points of view, and a reduction of people and objects to basic geometry—a photographic form. Strand made several radical choices in this work: he abandoned the traditional, upright perspective of the photograph; caused the table to appear tipped, as if to suspend its utilitarian function; deployed shadows to create powerful compositional diagonals; and suggested objectivity in the crispness of his negative and print. When Porch Shadows appeared in the final issue of Camera Work, it was a clear signal of a new aesthetic. As Strand wrote, true modernists should avoid all “tricks of process or manipulation” to celebrate photography’s inherent qualities as art.For more on the Alfred Stieglitz collection at the Art Institute, along with in-depth object information, please visit the website: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Paul Strand

Title

Porch Shadows

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1916

Medium

Silver-platinum print

Inscriptions

Signed and inscribed recto, on hinged paper, lower left, below image, in graphite: "Paul Strand 1916"; inscribed verso of print, lower left, in graphite: "7-1944-369"; signed and inscribed verso of print, lower right, in graphite: -"Paul Strand- / -1916-"; inscribed verso, on hinged paper, lower center, in graohite: "Shadows"; verso, on hinged paper, lower right, in graphite: "7-1944-369"

Dimensions

Image: 33.1 × 22.9 cm (13 1/16 × 9 1/16 in.); Paper: 33.7 × 23.4 cm (13 5/16 × 9 1/4 in.); Hinged paper: 43.7 × 32.2 cm (17 1/4 × 12 11/16 in.)

Credit Line

Alfred Stieglitz Collection

Reference Number

1949.885

Copyright

© Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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