...Mexico should have the opportunity to see "photography" -- all they knew was Tina Modotti and Weston -- not much to know in my humble opinion -- nor were they greatly impressed -- for these people are very quick and intelligent....
Paul Strand in a letter to Alfred Stieglitz, Mexico, 1933.
(Quoted in Aperture's "Paul Strand Southwest, page 103.)
Wilhelm (Sarasota)
Meow!
I read that book and that particular quote must have gone right past me. Interesting to know that even the legends liked to throw an elbow every now and again. Of course, Weston's daybooks are full of these sort of asides.
Strand sure knew how to suck up.
"There are two dirty words in photography; one is 'art', and the other is 'good taste'." - Helmut Newton
Photographers are not renowned for their words. I like what Helen Levitt said when asked a complicated question by a reviewer, "Look at the picture...... its all there."
The title of this thread grabbed me, because I realized I'd never read about contact between Strand and Weston (but think of them almost as pees in a pod).
Abd like many pees that share a pod, it wouldn't be too surprising for them to not get along. Kind of like Sunnis and Shiites being at each others throats, or Catholics and Protestants. No one outside the clans can even tell the difference between them.
I have no idea what the context of the statement is. Maybe they admired eachother but had just had a fight over something? Or maybe Strand, from his knee-jerk socialist high horse, thought weston was just some trivial esthete (just as Cartier Bresson suggested)?
But from where I sit, I still see them as two of my favorite pees in one of my favorite pods. They can bicker all they want ... just leave me out of it.
Toyon, I love that quote. And I'd add: If it's not all there then I've failed.
Nate Potter, Atlanta GA.
A little east coast west coast rivalry / jealosy perhaps. Struss had some choice comments about both Strand and Steichen iirc....and so it goes. I think the votes are in and Strands doesn't matter much in the final tally. Something about the human condition that keeps emerging in photographers, but no worse than anyone else.
And Weston on Strand, excerpt from Daybook I:
Stieglitz said: "Weston, I asked Paul Strand if he knew of you. He said "Yes, your work was no good." Now Strand is very close to me, in fact no one is closer, but I took him severly to task for an unconsidered sweeping statemant, and let him know how I felt having just seen it. He then admitted having seen only a few reproductions. Strand theorizes, does not work enough."
I'm not sure that Strand and Weston ever actually met each other in person.
St. Ansel, of course, was a common link.
Wilhelm (Sarasota)
New Yorkers are just as snobby 80-90 years later.
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