Accession Number
1971/2.126.16

Title
Girl and Child, Toluca

Artist(s)
Paul Strand

Artist Nationality
American (North American)

Object Creation Date
1933, printed 1967

Medium & Support
photogravure on paper

Dimensions
15 3/4 in x 12 3/8 in (40.01 cm x 31.43 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Philip C. Davis through the Friends of the Museum of Art

Subject matter
This is a double portrait of a young girl holding a young female child. The child has a small braid in her hair. The older girl stands leaning against a stone wall with peeling white paint and has wrapped the child in her striped, dark shawl. The child holds one of her arms outside the shawl, casually looking down, while the girl directs her gaze toward the camera. Strand used a prism lens to disguise his intentions when photographing his human subjects during his time in Mexico. In order to capture his images of people his lens directed the light at a right angle, while appearing to shoot from the front.

This photograph is from Paul Strand's The Mexican Portfolio published in 1967 by Paul Strand. The portfolio consists of a series of 20 images depicting Mexico's people, architecture, landscape, and churches. It was first published in 1940 under the name Photographs of Mexico, and reprinted under Strand's supervision in 1967 as The Mexican Portfolio.

Physical Description
Photograph of a young girl holding a child, leaning against a stone wall. The girl has the child wrapped in her shawl and the child's arm extends out.

Primary Object Classification
Photograph

Collection Area
Photography

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form. Keywords
Mexico
children (people by age group)
double portraits
girls
modern and contemporary art
shawl
shawls
standing
wall components