Paul Strand: Tir a'Mhurain closed on 10 February 2002. For details of our current exhibitions, take a look at our what’s on page.
This exhibition provided a rare opportunity to appreciate Paul Strand’s exploration of art and politics in his engaging study of life in the Outer Hebrides in the 1950s.
This exhibition was based on the photographs that Paul Strand made on the islands of South Uist, Benbecula and Eriskay during 1954. They were later published in 1962 as Tir a’Mhurain—Outer Hebrides, combining Strand’s photographs with a written account of the islands by the cultural historian Basil Davidson. The exhibition included vintage prints that were reproduced in the original publication, together with previously unseen material from Strand’s work on the islands.
Tir a’Mhurain
The phrase ‘Tir a’Mhurain’ is a romantic and political reference to landscape. It is taken from an emigrant's song in praise of the island of South Uist and has several Gaelic meanings: ‘the land of bent grass’ or ‘the land of marram grass’. History is an important part of Strand’s narrative—his work evokes the natural and cultural forces that shaped the island communities of the Outer Hebrides.
Tir a’Mhurain is an account of Gaelic culture and a defence of a way of life that Strand valued and respected. Along with studies of fishermen, families, schoolchildren and farmers, images of houses and possessions reveal a compelling beauty in the everyday. The elements that characterise the islands, both past and present, are subtly combined in many of the portraits.
Biography
Born in New York City, Strand first became interested in photography at the Ethical Culture School in 1907. Through his teacher Lewis Hine, who promoted photography as a means of social reform, Strand met the influential photographer, editor and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz. It was Stieglitz who gave Strand his first solo exhibition at the ‘291’ gallery, and dedicated two issues of Camera Work magazine to his work in 1916 and 1917.
Strand developed a new realism by rejecting the technical manipulation of images associated with the Pictorialist movement. He created a visual language specific to photography rather than attempting to make photography look like painting. The directness and sense of objectivity associated with his work are characteristic of what was described as ‘straight photography’.
In the 1930s, Strand’s political concerns and activism grew. He visited the Soviet Union, worked on the films The Waves in Mexico and The Plow that Broke the Plains in the USA, and co-founded the anti-fascist production company Frontier Films. In 1943 he returned to still photography, though the politics of his filmmaking clearly influenced the studies of the people and landscapes that followed.
This exhibition was organised by Aperture, a non-for-profit foundation devoted to photography and the visual arts.
