How to Read This Famous Photograph of New York

Paul Strand’s memorable portrait of Wall Street

Wall Street, New York (1915) by Paul Strand. Photogravure. Image source Wikimedia Commons

Paul Strand took this photograph of New York’s Wall Street in 1915. It shows the morning rush hour. Figures walk directly into the dawning sun, moving southeast through the city’s financial district in front of the J.P. Morgan & Co. Building.

Why does the image work? What is it doing to achieve its peculiarly potent effect?

Many commentators have pointed out the disparity between the looming finance building with its shadowed recesses and spartan design, and the diminutive figures who make their way in front of it.

An allegory of capitalism naturally suggests itself: that the machine-like building possesses a sort of monstrous inhumanity, one that is detached from human concerns. In its severe abstract form, the building loses any sense of benevolence or compassion. Here the people are seen as subservient silhouettes, trailing long shadows in their wake down the cruel avenues of commerce.

Wall Street, New York (1915) by Paul Strand. Photogravure. Image source Wikimedia Commons

Strand’s photograph is clearly an image of a real scene, taken from afar as people pace down the street. These are not actors but…