Paul Strand
Hess-Bright Ball Bearings, N.Y.1920

Not on view

Sepia-toned photograph of two steel ball bearings, one upright and one lying flat, with six loose steel balls scattered on a pale surface

Artist or Maker: Paul Strand
United States, 1890-1976
Title: Hess-Bright Ball Bearings, N.Y.
Place Made: United States
Date Made: 1920
Medium: Palladium print
Dimensions: Image (not including black border): 9 9/16 × 7 5/8 in. (24.29 × 19.3 cm) Primary support: 9 7/8 × 7 7/8 in. (25.1 × 20 cm) Secondary support: 18 3/4 × 14 5/16 in. (47.6 × 36.35 cm) Mat: 20 × 15 7/8 in. (50.8 × 40.32 cm)
Credit Line: The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection, gift of The Annenberg Foundation and Carol Vernon and Robert Turbin
Accession Number: M.2008.40.2093
Classification: Photographs
Collecting Area: Photography
Curatorial Notes: Paul Strand’s close-up photographs of machines, created in the early 1920s, are assertive works that highlight his ability to merge art and industry through the lens of modernist photography. His approach was influenced by his belief in “straight photography,” in which clarity, precision, and the intrinsic qualities of the subject take precedence. In these works, he rejected Pictorialist manipulation and soft focus, instead using sharp detail and high contrast to create images that are both documentary and artistic.

This close-up of ball bearings, produced by the Hess-Bright Manufacturing Company, Philadelphia, demonstrates the ease with which modernist aesthetics permeated commercial culture. Such images of precision-made items—with their gleaming surfaces and crisp shadows—appeared in promotional materials with text accompaniments. Just as ball bearings promised to eliminate friction, modernist photography claimed to eliminate extraneous romanticism.

Britt Salvesen

2024
Selected Bibliography: Salvesen, Britt. See the Light: Photography, Perception, Cognition: the Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2013.
Copyright: © Aperture Foundation Inc., Paul Strand Archive

Paul Strand
Hess-Bright Ball Bearings, N.Y.1920

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Paul Strand
United States, 1890-1976
Title: Hess-Bright Ball Bearings, N.Y.
Place Made: United States
Date Made: 1920
Medium: Palladium print
Dimensions: Image (not including black border): 9 9/16 × 7 5/8 in. (24.29 × 19.3 cm) Primary support: 9 7/8 × 7 7/8 in. (25.1 × 20 cm) Secondary support: 18 3/4 × 14 5/16 in. (47.6 × 36.35 cm) Mat: 20 × 15 7/8 in. (50.8 × 40.32 cm)
Credit Line: The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection, gift of The Annenberg Foundation and Carol Vernon and Robert Turbin
Accession Number: M.2008.40.2093
Classification: Photographs
Collecting Area: Photography
Curatorial Notes: Paul Strand’s close-up photographs of machines, created in the early 1920s, are assertive works that highlight his ability to merge art and industry through the lens of modernist photography. His approach was influenced by his belief in “straight photography,” in which clarity, precision, and the intrinsic qualities of the subject take precedence. In these works, he rejected Pictorialist manipulation and soft focus, instead using sharp detail and high contrast to create images that are both documentary and artistic.

This close-up of ball bearings, produced by the Hess-Bright Manufacturing Company, Philadelphia, demonstrates the ease with which modernist aesthetics permeated commercial culture. Such images of precision-made items—with their gleaming surfaces and crisp shadows—appeared in promotional materials with text accompaniments. Just as ball bearings promised to eliminate friction, modernist photography claimed to eliminate extraneous romanticism.

Britt Salvesen

2024
Selected Bibliography: Salvesen, Britt. See the Light: Photography, Perception, Cognition: the Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2013.