Mexican Portfolio: Men of Santa Anna, Michoacan

Artist Paul Strand (American, 1890-1976)

Date1940, printed 1967

Mediumphotogravure

Dimensionsmat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
sheet: 15 7/8 × 12 3/8 in. (40.3 × 31.4 cm)
image: 6 1/4 × 5 in. (15.9 × 12.7 cm)

Credit LineGift of the friends of Helen Roberts

Exhibition History"Paul Strand and David Lubbers: The Mexican Portfolios," KIA (May 15 - Aug. 2001). Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, April 24 - July 9, 2017 Label TextPaul Strand made his name in the 1910s and ’20s as a pioneer of modernist photography alongside his close friend Alfred Stieglitz. Some of Strand’s photographs from this period verge upon the abstract, finding in the world around him geometric shapes that, when stripped of context, resembled the breakthroughs being made by avant-garde painters of the period. However, though their relationship frayed over the years, like others in Stieglitz’ orbit, as time passed Strand slowly gravitated toward work that focused on the distinctive cultural traits of racialized regions, including New England and the American Southwest. In the early 1930s Strand was asked by the left-wing Mexican government to contribute to a film, Redes, that focused on the lives of struggling fishermen on the Gulf of Mexico. He lived in the country from 1932-35, completing the photographs he later published as the Mexican Portfolio in 1932-33. These images demonstrate both Strand’s racialized perspective on Mexican culture and the growing radicalism of his politics. Much like the work of many of his peers in New Mexico, many of Strand’s photographs from the portfolio recreate a tourist’s perspective on a Hispanic culture as they focus on distinctive architectures and religious statuettes. However, his many images of everyday Mexicans, including the two men pictured here, demonstrate a sense of sympathy for them as fellow workers.

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