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Lot Essay
"There was nothing immediately stirring or attractive about the place, but Hazel and I weren't looking for picturesqueness...The plainness was a challenge; it meant you had to look closer, dig into the life with more intensity." In the spring of 1950 Strand and Hazel Kingsbury traveled to France in search of a village. Inspired by Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology, Strand was intent "to find and show many of the elements that make a particular place where particular people live and work."
Their search in France proved fruitless and so the following year they traveled to Italy with the screen writer Cesare Zavattini with whom they had agreed to produce a book documenting an Italian village. They settled in Zavattini's home of Luzzara. During several months in 1952-1953 Strand produced the work which would be published as Un Paese in 1955. Zavattini's text explores the experiences of everyday life in the village. Strand's sequence of images culminates with this portrait of the Lusetti's, a family of tenant farmers.
The Family, Luzzara is considered by many to be Strand's most important post-war work. This somber yet poetic portrait is in many respects a synthesis of the earlier work Strand had done to create photographs which evoke a sense of a place and its inhabitants. As Strand noted, "I like to photograph people who have strength and dignity in their faces, whatever life has done to them, it hasn't destroyed them. I gravitate toward people like that." Coupled with an intensity of subject and visual texture Strand through his technical skill brings a richness and complexity through his interpretation in making this print. Some time after completing his work in Luzzara Strand recalled his experiences there. "Finally I did what has been on my mind to do for so many years - a portrait of a small community, men and women, all ageas - different kinds of work - kids - the works." (Sixty Years of Photography, pp. 30-32, 166-167.)
Approximately fifteen prints of this image are known to exist. This includes, according to the Strand Archive, 5 x 6in. contact prints in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Hallmark Collection; The Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, Texas; and The Cleveland Museum of Art.
In 1953 - the same year he made this image - Strand purchased his first enlarger and began making 8 x 10in. enlargements. Enlargements of this image would have been made later in the 1950s and examples are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; George Eastman House, Rochester, New York; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There are four known prints in private collections. Another enlargement of this image was sold at Christie's, New York, 5 October 1999, lot 233 and cover.
Their search in France proved fruitless and so the following year they traveled to Italy with the screen writer Cesare Zavattini with whom they had agreed to produce a book documenting an Italian village. They settled in Zavattini's home of Luzzara. During several months in 1952-1953 Strand produced the work which would be published as Un Paese in 1955. Zavattini's text explores the experiences of everyday life in the village. Strand's sequence of images culminates with this portrait of the Lusetti's, a family of tenant farmers.
The Family, Luzzara is considered by many to be Strand's most important post-war work. This somber yet poetic portrait is in many respects a synthesis of the earlier work Strand had done to create photographs which evoke a sense of a place and its inhabitants. As Strand noted, "I like to photograph people who have strength and dignity in their faces, whatever life has done to them, it hasn't destroyed them. I gravitate toward people like that." Coupled with an intensity of subject and visual texture Strand through his technical skill brings a richness and complexity through his interpretation in making this print. Some time after completing his work in Luzzara Strand recalled his experiences there. "Finally I did what has been on my mind to do for so many years - a portrait of a small community, men and women, all ageas - different kinds of work - kids - the works." (Sixty Years of Photography, pp. 30-32, 166-167.)
Approximately fifteen prints of this image are known to exist. This includes, according to the Strand Archive, 5 x 6in. contact prints in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Hallmark Collection; The Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, Texas; and The Cleveland Museum of Art.
In 1953 - the same year he made this image - Strand purchased his first enlarger and began making 8 x 10in. enlargements. Enlargements of this image would have been made later in the 1950s and examples are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; George Eastman House, Rochester, New York; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There are four known prints in private collections. Another enlargement of this image was sold at Christie's, New York, 5 October 1999, lot 233 and cover.