In about 1907 Paul Strand began visiting the studio of the great American photographer Alfred Stieglitz in New York. Eight years later Stieglitz wrote of him: ‘His work is pure. It is direct. It does not rely on tricks of process. In whatever he does there is applied intelligence.’

For more than half a century now Paul Strand has been looking at the world with the same pure, intelligent regard. Through his books and exhibitions, the permanent collection of his work in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and with his film Native Land, he has become known both in America and in Europe as one of the most important contributors to an art which is the closest expression of our times.