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Retracing America: Modernism After Paul Strand

Native Land, production still

Production still from Native Land, 1942 (Photo: Berenice Abbott/Courtesy of Tom Hurwitz)

Organized with generous support from the Terra Foundation for American Art, 'Retracing America: Modernism After Paul Strand' invites ten scholars of American modernism and mass media to reconsider the work and legacy of Paul Strand. Though primarily known for the portfolios he published in Alfred Stieglitz's Camera Work and his formalist experiments in the 1920s, Strand's work and legacy exceeds this particular modernist frame. Between the 1930s when he worked with the Photo League, until the 1970s, when he worked in exile with an international coterie of photographers, filmmakers and critics, Strand reshaped American modernism through a sustained engagement with the social promises of mass media. Bringing together historians of American modernism, photography and film, 'Retracing America' will be the first international conference to consider Strand's rich and varied photographic practice.

The conference will take place at University College London on 8-9 March 2013. It will open with a keynote address by Blake Stimson and a screening of Native Land

Oxford Art Journal, Special Issue: Modernism After Paul Strand

Conference organised by:

Stephanie Schwartz

Barnaby Haran

Terra Foundation logo
This conference is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art