Remco de Vries Paul Strand - Photograph (New York) 1916 17-03-2020
I don’t want to do too much research on this, because I’d like to write down my initial thoughts about the photograph. So all I know is that the photograph was taken by Paul Strand in New York in 1916. Knowing this picture was taken in New York is still quite a vast area where they could have taken the picture. I mean, was it in New York State or in New York City? Well upon closer inspection of the photograph I can see that the lady was a Licensed Peddler in New York City. Which means she was selling goods on the streets. The picture looks a bit peculiar to me, or rather.. the lady in the picture. Why is that? She seems to be missing an eye, and the other eye isn’t looking towards the camera. Knowing now that she was some sort of a sales woman I wonder if she was totally blind or not. When you’re blind you’re not really able to count money as it wasn’t really made for the visual handicapped. So I start to think she was partly blind. Paul Strand wasn’t an unknown photographer by any means, but I don’t think he was a huge one either since I haven’t really heard of him. That problem could also be very well on my end. I cannot really form an opinion about the photographer based on one picture, but I think he framed the women well, it’s an informative picture with the “blind” sign around her neck and not just a normal portrait.