Beschreibung:

Paul Strand (1890-1976)Central Park, New York, 1915
Unique platinum print, printed 1915 from the original glass negative; monogrammed 'PS' at the lower left corner of the image, framed.
7 1/4 x 13 in. (18.4 x 33 cm.)
sheet 22 3/4 x 19 1/2 in. (32.3 x 49.5 cm.)
FootnotesProvenance
Acquired from the photographer by Michael Hoffman, first executive director of Aperture and Co-founder (with Hazel Strand) of the Paul Strand Archive
By bequest to his daughter Sarah Warren Hoffman, 2001
Literature
Paul Strand: 60 years of Photographs (Aperture, 1976), p. 4 (this print reproduced).
Note
Paul Strand's delicate, pastoral photograph Central Park, New York is the only known platinum print of this early Pictorialist study. Between 1914-15, Strand traveled the meandering paths of this urban oasis, camera in hand, to make a series of images that capture men, women, and children as they stroll, relax on benches, talk, and read books. Each image was taken from an elevated vantage point so that Strand could capture a bird's-eye view. He used this same strategy in other beloved works from 1915, including Snow, Backyard, New York City; Wall Street; City Hall Park; and From the El. Whereas other platinum prints depicting Central Park are more square in proportion, the present work features an unusual panoramic view, its horizontal format encouraging the viewer's eye to wander from left to right.
Given that Strand was a native New Yorker, it is perhaps unsurprising that the city environment was his first significant subject. He had attended the Ethical Culture School, where he studied photography with Lewis Hine from 1904 to 1909. In 1907, when Strand was 17 years old, he encountered Pictorialist photography during a school visit to Alfred Stieglitz's Little Galleries of the Photo-Succession located at 291 Fifth Avenue. This formative visit compelled him to become a photographer.
After his high school graduation, Strand spent countless hours at the Camera Club of New York, where he utilized its darkroom and library, as well as discussed technical issues with its members. His early immersion into the world of photography made Strand a gifted printer at a young age. He began to execute platinum prints around 1911-12 when he was in his early twenties, and by the time he made his platinum prints of 1915, he had mastered the medium.
The raised viewpoint and compression of foreground and background evident in works from this era were influenced in part by his frequent visits to Stieglitz's gallery, where he saw examples of modern European and American art that often broke from traditional compositional formats. In 1915, Strand visited the Pan-American Exposition in San Francisco, where he saw Japanese wood-block prints. He subsequently applied the flattening and tilting elements of these prints to his own photographic compositions.
This print of Central Park bears the artist's seldom-used monogram 'PS' at the lower left corner of the image. At the time of this writing, it is thought that as few as six extant prints incorporate this monogram.
Unique platinum prints of Strand's Central Park images can be found in the following public collections: The Museum of Modern Art, New York (200.1976), gifted to the institution by Strand; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2005.100.117), originally in the Gilman Collection before its purchase by the museum.
Strand's early platinum prints made before 1916 are rare to market. Hudson River Pier, a print made circa 1914, sold for $245,000 against an estimate of $100,000-150,000 in December 2014 at Sotheby's New York. Twin Lakes, Connecticut, a platinum print from 1914-15, sold for $50,000 in April 2013, also at Sotheby's New York.
The present print comes from the collection of Sarah Warren Hoffman, daughter of Michael Hoffman, who was the first executive director of Aperture as well as co-founder (together with Hazel Strand) of the Paul Strand Archive. Hoffman and Strand were colleagues and dear friends. This unique work was featured in the Aperture monograph 60 Years of Photographs, published in 1976 – the same year that Strand passed away.