abdoujaparov
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- Keith
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I went to the Paul Strand exhibition at the V&A last weekend. I enjoyed it, with reservations.
I loved the early stuff, from 1915 - 1919 or so. Wall Street, White Fence, Blind Woman, the abstracts created with shadows, the NYC train yard. The Scottish islands series from the 1950s were similarly wonderful.
Unfortunately, the lighting was very subdued (to protect the prints) and I just found a lot of his middle-period prints to be muddy and low-contrast. I'm not sure whether it was the lighting, the aesthetic choices he made when he printed, or a combination of both, but there was little from this period that I liked. Similarly, there were some from his garden from his later life that I just though were uninspired compositions - and of course, who the hell am I to be questioning Paul Strand's composition, but if I'd taken them and I were looking at them in Lightroom I'd be hitting the reject button on a few of them.
I went up to the photography section of the museum proper afterwards. It's a pretty small section - one long room - but well worth the trip if you're in the area. Some really interesting stuff, early and modern. They also allow photography in the non-exhibition bits, and the whole building is chock full of good subjects for photography.
I loved the early stuff, from 1915 - 1919 or so. Wall Street, White Fence, Blind Woman, the abstracts created with shadows, the NYC train yard. The Scottish islands series from the 1950s were similarly wonderful.
Unfortunately, the lighting was very subdued (to protect the prints) and I just found a lot of his middle-period prints to be muddy and low-contrast. I'm not sure whether it was the lighting, the aesthetic choices he made when he printed, or a combination of both, but there was little from this period that I liked. Similarly, there were some from his garden from his later life that I just though were uninspired compositions - and of course, who the hell am I to be questioning Paul Strand's composition, but if I'd taken them and I were looking at them in Lightroom I'd be hitting the reject button on a few of them.
I went up to the photography section of the museum proper afterwards. It's a pretty small section - one long room - but well worth the trip if you're in the area. Some really interesting stuff, early and modern. They also allow photography in the non-exhibition bits, and the whole building is chock full of good subjects for photography.
