Paul Strand in Mexico featured in NY 1 News

10/10/2010 01:35 PM

"Paul Strand In Mexico" Comes to Chelsea Gallery

By: Stephanie Simon

A new photography exhibit in Chelsea takes a look at the people of Mexico in the early 1930s in the years after its revolution. NY1's Stephanie Simon filed the following report.

The harsh reality of Mexican life in the years after its revolution in 1910 are now on display in a new photo exhibit at Aperture gallery on West 27th Street. To chronicle this unique moment in Mexican history, premiere Mexican composer Carlos Chavez invited New York photographer Paul Strand to come with his camera.

"Paul Strand spent two, almost three years there really getting into what it meant to be sort of in this new nation and presented a great look at the people, the architecture, and the things they valued, the details, the religious details of that time," said Paul Strand in Mexico Editor Lesley Martin.

The exhibit includes more than 100 prints from Strand's time in Mexico in the early 1930s, plus a film he made as well.

A group of students from Baruch College who recently visited the exhibit say the beauty of the photographs are in the eye of the beholder.

"His sense of photographing people and the way he used light and texture, I've always found to be really remarkable," said Baruch College Professor of Photography Leonard Sussman.

"You see what's kind of like what in our culture might be, like a doe-eyed female girl, and even so, like even in that innocence, there's like a tension behind it, so that's what caught my eye," said Baruch College student Dov Zamore.

"A lot of the images, the ones not of the people, but of the religious icons, were more striking than the people themselves. Because a lot of the crucifixes, you could actually, they were so vividly made, that you could see the blood dripping from Jesus or the look, expression on his face and I found that particulary interesting," said Baruch College student Ravendra Persaud.

If you find Strand particularly interesting, you can see every image he took in Mexico in a new book titled "Paul Strand in Mexico." It goes on sale at bookstores next month, but is available now at Aperture. There is also a small showcase of his prints currently at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.

"We wanted this to be sort of a community wide celebration, both of Paul Strand but also of the incredible dynamic cultural exchange that's existed between Mexico and the United States," Martin said.

For more information, visit www.aperture.org.