Paul Strand_Manhatta 1921

I came across this short film on a blog I read from time to time and wanted to share it. I knew of Paul Strand as a painter but not film maker, so I was particularly intrigued by this shift in medium. There is a scene in the clip that references back directly to a painting he completed in 1915 titled 'Wall Street'. The painting for me represented all that is vacant in American urban life; a kind of cold autonomous silence.

While the film appears to dismiss this 'silence'. it extends to illustrate Strands gift for observing the American metropolis from a uniquely fringe point of view.