PBA Galleries

Includes:

• Seventeen autograph letters from Paul Strand to Edgar and/or Jean Bissantz, one to four pages each, written from Orgeval, France, plus four addressed and stamped airmail envelopes. Most are signed Paul and Hazel, but in Paul’s hand. 1962-1969.
• Photocopy of earlier and letter to Edgar Bissantz from Paul Strand, also from Orgeval. 1960.
• Autograph letter from Hazel Strand with a portion by Paul Strand, to Jean and Ed Bizzantz, undated but 1960’s.
• Three autograph letters from Hazel Strand to the Bizzantzes, two with snapshot photographs attached, these signed Hazel and Paul in Hazel’s hand and written from Oregval, the other unsigned and written from Carmel, California, after Paul’s death.
• Five Christmas cards from the Strands to the Bissantzes, with original photographs (two mounted, three with the photographs folded to form a card, the former with handwritten notes by Helen, the latter by Paul).
• Printed invitation to Paul Strand’s memorial service in New York, with handwritten note by Hazel.
• Plus a few other items.

Significant little archive of letters from one of the premier modernist American photographers of the 20th century.  Paul Strand (1890-1976) helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century, his diverse body of work covering numerous genres and subjects throughout the Americas, Europe, and Africa. Edgar Bissantz, to whom the letters are addressed along with his wife Jean, was also a noted photographer, and the two couples struck up a friendship beginning around 1960. The letters describes travels, exhibits, the care and preservation of photographs, and ongoing projects, as well as the challenges of advancing age. Other photographers in their circle are referred to, including Ansel  Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Beaumont Newhall, and Laura Gilpin. A short excerpt from the letter of October 17, 1967: “Last June was a pretty crazy month; I had to go to New York for a week in connection with the Mexican Portfolio, to solve the lacquering problem, then get back to Orgeval with just one week left to prepare to leave for Bucharest. In fact 1967 has been a year of much travelling and some accomplishment,  I think, the new edition of the Portfolio, limited to 1000 copies, the Egyptian book to appear in 1968, and material now gathered for a Rumanian book, promised them to be in form to print in a year…” Provenance: The Bissantz family.