Town Hall, Vermont

Unlike the muted tonalities of his Mexican pictures, Paul Strand’s images of New England are more light-filled. In this image of a town hall building in Vermont, the white clapboard gleams in full sun. The inclusion of the telephone pole paralleling the bell tower adds a vertical thrust, while the tilt of Strand’s camera lends a sense of dynamism to the older architecture. In 1943, Strand returned to New England, and to photography after a ten year hiatus during which he mostly worked in film. He photographed the region’s churches, cemeteries, farm buildings, trees, fishermen, and craftspeople to make a study of the particular character of its geography, history, and people. Collaborating with the curator Nancy Newhall to pair writings with his imagery, he published "Time in New England" in 1950. The images in the book highlight the weight of New England’s history, even as they aim to link past and present by drawing out the qualities of simplicity, directness, and endurance.