Church CoapiaxtlaArt Blart _ art and cultural memory archive

Exhibition: ‘Etched by Light: Photogravures from the Collection, 1840-1940’ at the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Exhibition dates: 15th October, 2023 – 4th February, 2024

Curators: The exhibition is curated by Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs, with Andrea Coffman, collection manager in the department of photographs, both at the National Gallery of Art.

Charles Nègre (French, 1820-1880)
Cathédrale de Chartres – Portique du Midi XIIe Siècle
c. 1854, printed c. 1857
Photogravure
Image: 53 x 73cm (20 7/8 x 28 3/4 in.)
Sheet: 59.3 x 80cm (23 3/8 x 31 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, The Sarah and William L Walton Fund

The under appreciated photogravure process, which prints photographs in ink on paper, produces images of luscious lucidity.

In the “photomechanical process, which came to be called photogravure, a photographic image is etched into a printmaking plate, ink is rubbed into the etched surface, a damp sheet of paper is laid on top of the plate, and both are put through a printing press to transfer the ink to paper.” (Press release)

The prints are tonally rich and have a smooth, continuous tonal range and, depending on the choice of paper and inks, can be produced in a variety of colours and textures. While the process is time-consuming and labour-intensive nothing – except perhaps a platinum print developed in Amidol or alike whose negative has been developed in Pyro developer – comes close to the beauty and tonality of the gravure. “This intricate, painstaking and time-consuming method produces images with rich tones and a sense of light, depth, and realism.”

“The process offers the most sophisticated photomechanical means to reproduce large editions while still retaining the warm blacks and subtle shades of gray. It thrived into the 1930s, but World War II brought an end to its popularity due to costs and availability. As the spirit of hands-on experimentation returned to photography in the 1960s, Jon Goodman (b. 1953) is credited with its revival, and is lauded for creating sumptuous portfolios of the works of famed photographers Paul Strand (1890-1976) and Edward Steichen (1879-1973).”1

Some of the most beautiful photographs ever made are printed in the photogravure process. Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946), that pioneering artist, publisher and teacher, used them extensively in his influential quarterly photographic journal Camera Work (1903-1917).

One of my favourite photographs of all time, Paul Strand’s Wall Street (1915) is known only in two vintage platinum palladium prints, but is more commonly seen in reproduction as a photogravure print, notably in Stieglitz’s Camera Work Number 48 October 1916 (see below). “Wall Street became one of his most famous images because of his willingness to reproduce it in various photographic media and at different periods throughout his career.” (Philadelphia Museum of Art website)

Thus the reproducibility of the photogravure process led to the wider distribution of beautiful photographs. Crucially these hand printed photomechanical prints still retain an aura – of reality, presence and the hand of the artist, spirit if you like – unlike many reproductions in later photography books.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

1/ Robin O’Dell. “The Photogravure Process,” on the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts website Nov 15, 2020 [Online] Cited 26/01/2024

Many thankx to the National Gallery of Art for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

Paul Strand (American, 1890-1976)
New York [Wall Street]
Negative 1915; print 1916
Photogravure
From Camera Work. Number 48. Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946) publisher
Image: 13 × 16.2 cm (5 1/8 × 6 3/8 in.)
Sheet: 27.8 × 19.7 cm (10 15/16 × 7 3/4 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Public domain

Please note: As far as I know, this photograph is not in the exhibition.

Discover an intriguing chapter in the history of photography, as innovative practitioners searched for and perfected a method to produce identical photographic prints in ink. The process, which came to be called photogravure, yielded some of the most beautiful photographs ever made – featuring delicate highlights, lush blacks, a remarkably rich tonal range, and a velvety matte surface. Etched by Light: Photogravures from the Collection, 1840-1940 tells the story of the first 100 years of this process. Artists and scientists working across Europe from the 1840s through the 1870s were dismayed to discover that identical silver-based photographic prints were not only difficult to make but also faded quickly. Building on one another’s discoveries, innovators such as William Henry Fox Talbot, Hippolyte Fizeau, and Charles Nègre perfected a way to etch a photographic image into a copperplate and print it in ink. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, photographers such as James Craig Annan and Peter Henry Emerson utilised this process to demonstrate the artistic nature of photography while somewhat later photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, and Laure Albin-Guillot used the technique to create large, bold pictures that they disseminated widely. Including 46 photogravures and 5 bound volumes illustrated with photogravures, many never before exhibited, Etched by Light shows how these works, through their proliferation, have helped shape our collective visual experience.

Bisson Frères. Louis-Auguste Bisson (French, 1814-1876) and Auguste-Rosalie Bisson (French, 1826-1900)
Notre-Dame
1850s
Heliogravure on chine colle
Sheet: 35.7 x 27.3cm (14 1/16 x 10 3/4 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund
Public domain

Joseph Cundall (British, 1818-1895) and Robert Howlett (British, 1831-1858)
Crimean Braves – Men of the Trenches and Battlefields in the Crimea
1856
Photogalvanograph proof on chine collé
Plate: 31 x 25cm (12 3/16 x 9 13/16 in.)
Sheet: 55.8 x 38cm (21 15/16 x 14 15/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund
Public domain

Peter Henry Emerson (British, 1856-1936)
A Winter’s Morning
1887
Photogravure
Image: 17.7 x 28.7cm (6 15/16 x 11 5/16 in.)
Sheet: 21.5 x 32.4cm (8 7/16 x 12 3/4 in.)
Mount: 40 x 50.8cm (15 3/4 x 20 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Carolyn Brody Fund and Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects

Peter Henry Emerson (British born Cuba, 1856-1936)
The Poacher – A Hare in View
1888
Photogravure
Image: 28.5 x 23.7cm (11 1/4 x 9 5/16 in.)
Sheet: 30.5 x 25.7cm (12 x 10 1/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art
Gift of Mary and Dan Solomon and Patrons’ Permanent Fund
Public domain

Peter Henry Emerson (British born Cuba, 1856-1936)
The Poacher – A Hare in View (detail)
1888
Photogravure
Image: 28.5 x 23.7cm (11 1/4 x 9 5/16 in.)
Sheet: 30.5 x 25.7cm (12 x 10 1/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art
Gift of Mary and Dan Solomon and Patrons’ Permanent Fund
Public domain

James Craig Annan (British, 1864-1946)
A Black Canal
1894
Photogravure
Image: 9.1 x 12.6cm (3 9/16 x 4 15/16 in.)
Sheet: 9.6 x 12.8cm (3 3/4 x 5 1/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art
Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund and Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund

Peter Henry Emerson (British born Cuba, 1856-1936)
Marsh Leaves
Published 1895
1 vol: ill: 16 photogravures on wove paper
Page size: 28.4 x 18.4cm (11 3/16 x 7 1/4 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Harvey S. Shipley Miller and J. Randall Plummer, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art

Clarence H. White (American, 1871-1925)
Spring
1899
Photogravure overmatted and mounted on gray wove paper
Image (sight): 12.9 x 13cm (5 1/16 x 5 1/8 in.)
Mat: 28.5 x 19.5cm (11 1/4 x 7 11/16 in.)
Mount: 38 x 27.8cm (14 15/16 x 10 15/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Anonymous Gift
Public domain

Mathilde Weil (American, 1872-1942)
Beatrice
1899
Photogravure in sepia on chine collé mounted on cream wove paper
Image: 16.7 x 9cm (6 9/16 x 3 9/16 in.)
Sheet: 18.8 x 10.4cm (7 3/8 x 4 1/8 in.)
Mount: 37.8 x 27.8cm (14 7/8 x 10 15/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Anonymous Gift

Clarence H. White (American, 1871-1925)
Edge of the Woods, Evening
1900
Photogravure
Image: 14.5 x 10.1cm (5 11/16 x 4 in.)
Sheet: 28.5 x 19.8cm (11 1/4 x 7 13/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art
Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund
Public domain

Clarence H. White (American, 1871-1925)
Morning
c. 1905
Photogravure
Image: 20.2 x 15.5cm (7 15/16 x 6 1/8 in.)
Mount: 20.7 x 16.2cm (8 1/8 x 6 3/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art Washington, Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund
Public domain

Etched by Light: Photogravures from the Collection, 1840-1940 tells the fascinating story of the search to find and perfect a way to print photographs in ink. The process, which came to be called photogravure, resulted in some of the most beautiful photographs ever made – featuring delicate highlights, lush blacks, a remarkably rich tonal range, and a velvety matte surface. Presenting 40 photogravures and 4 bound volumes illustrated with them (many recently acquired and exhibited here for the first time), Etched by Light shows how this process enabled photographs to circulate widely and help shape our collective visual experience. The exhibition is on view from October 15, 2023, through February 4, 2024, in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art.

“Discover an intriguing chapter in the history of photography, as innovative practitioners developed a method to produce photographic prints in ink,” said Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs at the National Gallery of Art. “Including photogravures from the National Gallery’s collection, this exhibition shows the pivotal role photogravures played in the history of photography by enabling the creation and widespread dissemination of tonally rich and lasting prints.”

About the Exhibition

From its very beginnings, photography revolutionised the way pictures were made and knowledge about the visual world was disseminated. But in the early 1840s, artists and scientists working across Europe discovered that it had drawbacks. The daguerreotype process, developed by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, created astonishingly vivid images, but each one was unique and could only be copied by making another photograph. William Henry Fox Talbot’s negative / positive process held more promise, but his silver-chloride prints faded when exposed to light. Early practitioners also learned that it was hard to make numerous identical prints that could be tipped into books or journals, owing to variabilities in the paper and chemicals that were used to make prints. Such obstacles, at least initially, frustrated their hopes of fully realising the potential of this new medium.

Divided into three sections, Etched by Light traces the search – unfolding across 100 years – for a process to print photographs in ink, which were more stable than traditional silver-based photographic prints. It moves from the experiments in the 1840s and 1850s by French and British photographers such as Armand-Hippolyte-Louis Fizeau, Charles Nègre, and Talbot, who discovered the chemical and technical components necessary to print photographs in ink, to the successful solution invented by Talbot in the 1850s and perfected by Karl Klíč in 1879. In their photomechanical process, which came to be called photogravure, a photographic image is etched into a printmaking plate, ink is rubbed into the etched surface, a damp sheet of paper is laid on top of the plate, and both are put through a printing press to transfer the ink to paper. Favoured from the mid-1880s through the 1930s, revived in the 1980s and 1990s, and still popular today, photogravures have a smooth, continuous tonal range, although an extremely fine grain is evident under magnification.

The exhibition also shows how photographers working in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including Peter Henry Emerson and Alfred Stieglitz, exploited the photogravure process for its artistic potential. They highlighted the individuality of their pictures through their choice of paper and inks, and even manipulated the photographic image itself. They also utilised the reproducibility of the process, inserting their photogravures into limited edition books, portfolios, and journals that they circulated in an effort to prove the artistic merit of photography.

The exhibition concludes with the work of modernist photographers, such as Alvin Langdon Coburn, Laure Albin Guillot, Man Ray, and Margaret Bourke-White, who used the process to enlarge small negatives, creating big, bold, and sometimes colourful photogravures. Circulating their photogravures widely in books and portfolios, as well as commercial advertisements, these artists demonstrated that photography could tackle new subjects, revitalising our view of life, art, and science, and in the process revealing critical new insights about the world around us.

The exhibition is organised by the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Press release from the National Gallery of Art

Alvin Langdon Coburn (British born United States, 1882-1966)
Trafalgar Square
1909
Photogravure
Image: 21.2 x 16.2cm (8 3/8 x 6 3/8 in.)
Sheet: 21.7 x 16.7cm (8 9/16 x 6 9/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art
Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund

Alvin Langdon Coburn (British born United States, 1882-1966)
Brooklyn Bridge
c. 1910
Photogravure
Image: 19.9 x 14.7cm (7 13/16 x 5 13/16 in.)
Sheet: 21.2 x 15.3cm (8 3/8 x 6 in.)
National Gallery of Art
Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund

Alvin Langdon Coburn (British born United States, 1882-1966)
The Battery
c. 1909
Photogravure
Image: 16 x 15.56cm (6 5/16 x 6 1/8 in.)
Sheet: 17.3 x 16.4cm (6 13/16 x 6 7/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art
Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund

Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946)
The Street – Design for a Poster / The Street – Fifth Avenue
1896? / 1901-1902?, printed 1903
Photogravure
National Gallery of Art
Public domain

Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946)
The Steerage
1907, printed in or before 1913
Photogravure on cream moderately thick smooth wove Japanese paper
Image: 33.2 x 26.4cm (13 1/16 x 10 3/8 in.)
Sheet: 46.3 x 31.9cm (18 1/4 x 12 9/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art
Alfred Stieglitz Collection

Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946)
Old and New New York
1910, printed in or before 1913
Photogravure on beige thin slightly textured laid Japanese paper
Image: 33.3 x 25.7cm (13 1/8 x 10 1/8 in.)
Sheet: 40.3 x 28.3cm (15 7/8 x 11 1/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art
Alfred Stieglitz Collection

Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946)
After Working Hours – The Ferry Boat
1910, printed in or before 1913
Photogravure
Image: 33.6 x 25.9cm (13 1/4 x 10 3/16 in.)
Sheet: 40.4 x 28.1cm (15 7/8 x 11 1/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art
Alfred Stieglitz Collection

Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946)
The City of Ambition
1910, printed in or before 1913
Photogravure on beige thin slightly textured laid Japanese paper
Sheet (trimmed to image): 34 x 26cm (13 3/8 x 10 1/4 in.)
Mount: 43.3 x 32 cm (17 1/16 x 12 5/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred Stieglitz Collection

Anne Brigman (American, 1859-1960)
The Cleft of the Rock
1912
Photogravure
Image: 21 x 16cm (8 1/4 x 6 5/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mark Katzman and Hilary Skirboll

Alvin Langdon Coburn (British born United States, 1882-1966)
The Tunnel Builders
1913
Photogravure
Image: 21 x 17cm (8 1/4 x 6 11/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Funds from John S. Parsley and Nancy Nolan Parsley

Man Ray (American, 1890-1976)
Électricité
1931
Photogravure
Image: 26 x 20.5cm (10 1/4 x 8 1/16 in.)
Mount: 37.5 x 27.5cm (14 3/4 x 10 13/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Robert B. Menschel

Man Ray (American, 1890-1976)
Le Monde
1931
Photogravure
Image: 26 x 20.5cm (10 1/4 x 8 1/16 in.)
Mount: 37.5 x 27.5cm (14 3/4 x 10 13/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Robert B. Menschel

Man Ray (American, 1890-1976)
La Ville (The City)
1931
Photogravure
Image: 26 x 20.5cm (10 1/4 x 8 1/16 in.)
Mount: 37.5 x 27.5cm (14 3/4 x 10 13/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Robert B. Menschel

Man Ray (American, 1890-1976)
Le Souffle (Breeze)
1931
Photogravure
Image: 26 x 20.2cm (10 1/4 x 7 15/16 in.)
Mount: 37.5 x 27.5cm (14 3/4 x 10 13/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Robert B. Menschel

Paul Strand (American, 1890-1976)
Virgin, Sand Felipe, Oaxaca
1933, printed 1940
Photogravure
Image: 26.4 x 20.7cm (10 3/8 x 8 1/8 in.)
Sheet: 40.4 x 31.7cm (15 7/8 x 12 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

Paul Strand (American, 1890-1976)
Men of Santa Anna, Michoacan
1933, printed 1940
Photogravure
Image: 16.1 x 12.7cm (6 5/16 x 5 in.)
Sheet: 40.4 x 31.7cm (15 7/8 x 12 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

Paul Strand (American, 1890-1976)
Boy, Uruapan
1933, printed 1940
Photogravure
Image: 25.7 x 20.5cm (10 1/8 x 8 1/16 in.)
Sheet: 40.4 x 31.7cm (15 7/8 x 12 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

Paul Strand (American, 1890-1976)
Cristo, Tiacochoaya, Oaxaca
1933, printed 1940
Photogravure
Image: 26 x 20.4cm (10 1/4 x 8 1/16 in.)
Sheet: 40.4 x 31.7cm (15 7/8 x 12 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

Paul Strand (American, 1890-1976)
Cristo with Thorns, Huexotla
1933, printed 1940
Photogravure
Image: 26 x 20.5cm (10 1/4 x 8 1/16 in.)
Sheet: 40.4 x 31.7cm (15 7/8 x 12 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

Paul Strand (American, 1890-1976)
Church, Coapiaxtla
1933, printed 1940
Photogravure
Image: 16.2 x 12.7cm (6 3/8 x 5 in.)
Sheet: 40.4 x 31.7cm (15 7/8 x 12 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

Doris Ulmann (American, 1882-1934)
Plate 35
1933
Photogravure
Image: 21 x 16cm (8 1/4 x 6 5/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mary and Dan Solomon

Doris Ulmann (American, 1882-1934)
Plate 47
1933
Photogravure
Image: 16 x 21cm (6 5/16 x 8 1/4 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund

National Gallery of Art
National Mall between 3rd and 7th Streets
Constitution Avenue NW, Washington

Opening hours:
Daily 10am – 5pm

National Gallery of Art website

LIKE ART BLART ON FACEBOOK

Back to top

Exhibition: ‘Henri Cartier-Bresson / Paul Strand, Mexico 1932-1934’ at HCB Foundation, Paris

Exhibition dates: 11th January – 22nd April 2012

Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908-2004)
Mexico
1934
Gelatin silver print
© Magnum, Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation

“The American’s immobility contrasts with [the] Frenchman’s fluidity.”

Press releases should be very careful when making such sweeping generalisations. Personally I find the photographs of Cartier-Bresson the more static (both physical and psychological) of the two photographers. The compartmentalisation of space in Bresson’s photographs – the use of diagonals and verticals – is more fixed than in the sensuous Strand, the emotions more didactic and formalised even as they seek the spontaneity of photojournalism. The placement of the two figures in Strand’s Men of Santa Ana (1933, below) is superlative, with the central dividing column and combination of tones and textures, father and son(?), stares and postures. Cartier-Bresson’s Prostitute (1934, below) is simpler in pose and purpose but we must remember this was a twenty-six year old photographer still finding his voice in the world, whereas Strand was a much older person and a more experienced photographer.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Many thankx to the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908-2004)
Natcho Aguirre, Santa Clara, Mexico
1934
Gelatin silver print
© Magnum, Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation

Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908-2004)
Calle Cuauhtemoctzin (two prostitutes), Mexico City
1934
Gelatin silver print
© Magnum, Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation

Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908-2004)
The Spider of Love, Mexico City
1934
Gelatin silver print
© Magnum, Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation

Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908-2004)
Mexico
1934
Gelatin silver print
© Magnum, Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation

Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908-2004)
Juchitan
1934
Gelatin silver print
© Magnum, Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation

Bringing together such different works by two great masters in the history of photography is not self-evident. There are many points of convergence, but their styles are profoundly different. The American’s immobility contrasts with Frenchman’s fluidity. They both travelled to Mexico during the same period and they crossed paths in New York in 1935 when they joined the political filmmakers’ group Nykino (which later became Frontier Films) in order to explore filmmaking at a critical point in their respective careers.

In autumn 1932, Paul Strand (1890-1976) set out for Mexico by car at the invitation of the Mexican Ministry of Education. He exhibited his photographs there and had the pleasure of witnessing the popular success of his images. It was in the course of working in the streets of Mexico, a practice which he had abandoned for many years, that Strand took up a different documentary style. At that point, he received a proposal to make a series of films. In 1934, he shot Redes (released in English as The Wave), a ‘docu-fiction’ about the oppression of the fishermen in the village of Alvarado. The film was screened in Mexico in 1936, and subsequently in the United States and France. In 1950, fleeing the climate of McCarthyism in the United States, he came to France and ultimately settled in the village of Orgeval, where he remained until the end of his life.

In 1934, Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), who was eighteen years younger than Strand, signed up for a French ethnographic mission which was supposed to take him to Argentina. In the end, the mission was suspended and the twenty-six-year-old photographer spent a year in Mexico, literally fascinated by the country. He worked for several newspapers there, moved in intellectual and artistic circles together with his sister and worried about his future. In March 1935, he exhibited his work at the Palacio de Bellas Artes with Mexican photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo. The local press reacted favourably and the young Frenchman contacted New York art dealer Julien Levy – who had already exhibited him in 1933 – to suggest a show of his recent work. He left Mexico with the firm intention of becoming a filmmaker and thus headed straight for the Nykino group. Strand’s prints come from various international collections; those of Cartier-Bresson belong to the Fondation HCB archives.

Press release from the HCB Foundation website

Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908-2004)
Prostitute, Calle Cuauhtemoctzin, Mexico
1934
Gelatin silver print
© Magnum, Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation

Paul Strand (American, 1890-1976)
Men of Santa Ana, Lake Patzcuaro Michoacan
1933
Gelatin silver print
© Paul Strand

From January 11 to April 22, 2012, the HCB Foundation will pay tribute to two great masters of photography: Henri Cartier-Bresson and Paul Strand. The perspective of their work on Mexico between 1932 and 1934 will be an opportunity for the public to discover two visions of the same country and especially two approaches to photography.

In the fall of 1932, Paul Strand (1890-1976) left the United States and a personal life in crisis for Mexico. It was at the invitation of Carlos Chavez, whom he had met a little earlier and now responsible for culture at the Ministry of Education, that Strand discovered this country of which he said “I thought of Mexico as something mysterious, dark and dangerous, inhospitable.” However, Strand remained in Mexico for two years until his return to New York in December 1934.

The support of Carlos Chavez proved to be very important and enabled Strand to exhibit for the first time in Mexico at the Sala de Arte of the Ministry of Education in February 1933. After this first success, he left in the spring of 1933 to investigate Mexican arts and crafts in the state of Michoacán. Fascinated by the indigenous culture and the piety of the inhabitants, he brought back from this mission portraits of religious statues, men, women and children in the streets, landscapes and architecture.

He was then appointed director of photographic and cinematographic activities for the Ministry of Education and was entrusted with the production of a series of films on Mexico. He then worked on the script for his first feature film Redes, which is intended as a docu-fiction based on the struggle of a group of men, fishermen, against a corrupt society. The actors of the film are mainly the inhabitants of the village of Alvarado. The realisation is complex but the film is finally screened at the Juarez de Alvarado theatre on June 4, 1936. Barely a year later, it is under the title The Wave that the American public discovers this film very largely influenced by Russian cinema. Unfortunately, the new Mexican government set up in 1934 with the election of Lazaro Cardenas abandoned the film series project and Strand therefore decided to return to New York. He then abandoned photography, joined the association of filmmakers Nykino, devoted himself to political cinema and became president of Frontier Film, Nykino’s new name.

In 1940, thanks to the financial support of Virginia Stevens, his new wife, he published “Photographs of Mexico”, a portfolio, published in 250 copies, of 20 carefully assembled photogravures. A copy will be presented in the exhibition.

In 1951, when the witch hunt was launched in the United States by McCarthy, Strand decided to settle in Orgeval, France, where he would spend the end of his life.

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) landed in Mexico City in July 1934. He was part of an ethnographic mission led by Doctor Julio Brandan and supported by the Trocadéro Museum to follow the construction of a major Pan-American road. The mission got off to a bad start because the funding promised by the Mexican government was not forthcoming. The majority of the members of the expedition then returned to France, disappointed to see the project abandoned. But HCB decides to stay because “he feels a real crush on this country”. Nicknamed “the little Frenchman with shrimp cheeks” by Lupe Cervantes, his Mexican “fiancée”, Cartier-Bresson travels the country with his Leica. He therefore manages to survive in this country, befriends poets like Langston Hugues, Tonio Salazar or Natcho Aguirre, is passionate about muralists and their revolutionary frescoes, works for the press like Todo. He exhibited at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in March 1935 with the Mexican photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo. “When he left, he declared himself a Frenchman from Mexico.”

During his stay, Henri Cartier-Bresson maintains frequent contact with the New York gallery owner Julien Levy and invites him to exhibit his recent photographs. This project will be carried out in April 1935 under the title “Documentary and Antigraphic photographs”. On this occasion, he will find the Mexican Manuel Alvarez Bravo and meet Walker Evans whom he deeply esteems. As soon as he arrived in New York, Henri Cartier-Bresson turned to cinema, “I stopped photographing in 1935, when I was in New York. Photography has always been for me only one of the different means of visual expression. […] I therefore started, with Paul Strand and with others, to learn cinema. I changed tools. Thanks to financial help from his parents, he bought a 35mm camera and joined the Nykino group. He learned a lot from this group of committed filmmakers and on his return to France, he assisted Jean Renoir on several of his films (La vie est à nous [Life is ours], Une partie de campagne [A country party]). It was not until 1937 that he left for Spain to make documentaries on the Spanish front. (Spain Will Live, Victory of Life, and With the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain)

Putting these two photographers into perspective is not easy. The convergences are numerous but the styles vary profoundly. The fluidity of the French contrasts with the immobility of the American. Both travel to Mexico at the same time, both meet in New York in 1935, when they join the group of committed filmmakers Nykino, to try a cinematic experience in a key phase of their two careers.

The exhibition presents 90 black and white prints: the works of Paul Strand come from Spanish, American and Mexican collections; those of Cartier-Bresson, some of which are unpublished, come from the collection of the HCB Foundation. The exhibition will be presented from May 13 to September 2, 2012 at the Point du Jour Center d’art in Cherbourg.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, published by Steidl, with a preface by Agnès Sire and an essay by Clément Chéroux.

Press dossier from HCB Foundation website translated from the French by Google Translate