Young Boy, Gondeville, Charente, France, from Portfolio Three

Deeply influenced by such major photographers as Lewis Wickes Hine and Alfred Stieglitz, Strand traveled extensively, photographing across the United States and abroad. In the 1950s Strand spent time in France, creating images of the local people and landscape that conveyed social and political issues. Here Strand captures the youthful but determined countenance of a young boy from southwestern France, whose working clothes and bronzed skin tell of his sustained experience with manual labor. In such rural environs, working on the family farm was the expected occupation for many boys, their fortunes tied to the prosperity of the land.