Village, Gaspé

Paul Strand had been visiting the isolated Gaspé Peninsula in eastern Canada since the late 1920s. This image was taken in 1936 when he and his second wife, Virginia Stevens, honeymooned in this fishing village. Strand was attracted to the distinctive atmosphere, as well as the straightforward geometries and materials of its local architecture. As in New Mexico, he did not attempt to capture a grand sense of space but created tight arrangements of the built environment. Here, three clapboard buildings are framed behind an undulating picket fence, animated by the alternating rhythms of light and dark as well as repeated shapes in the fence slats, window openings, and roof pitches.