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Paul Strand ... does this idea work for you?

Perhaps....I'll re-read Daybook 2. Still, he did court both subjects and collectors...and San Francisco has always been an especially bohemian city, never "big" (walk from Diamond Heights to Bay in an hour) .
A quick look at book 2, and I saw a couple of pertinent entries:

"November 16 [1929, I think]. ...S. F. was impossible, any city would be to me now [he had moved to Carmel by then] : the dirt, noise, cramped quarters, the drabness of humanity struggling for money enough for food, then hunting excitement. One must grub for money, no matter where, but here [Carmel] at least are trees to look out upon, the ocean nearby, clean sparkling air, and few people, elbow room, breathing space, and for excitement, I don't want the passive kind,—entertainment—I want the thrill of work."

"July 10 — ...Other recent and important notes: I am to have a frame at Hotel Del Monte
[I believe it was a large luxury hotel in Monterey], which should bring sittings unfortunately from the class of unhealthy parasites I detest..."
 
to focus your interests on how someone else did theirs, is futility.

who cares if they took photographs of empty cans on the street in some sort of self described "nihilistic expression of life".

if you see an empty can on the street that seems interesting, or disturbing, take the shot. its like on deviantart, most of the nude photos, the backgrounds are more interesting.
 
  • jtk
  • Deleted

Pieter, EW loved San Franciscans as did its bohemian art and photography communities (including Mark Twain and North Beach, and is the home of Sierra Club.

That he hung out around (sold from) the Del Monte tells us something more significant about his truth than does that passage. People who identify as "artists" virtually always "detest" the people who buy their work.
 

Going by that qoute, he DETESTED everything about the city of San Francisco and its inhabitants.
But going by the second quote, he also hated everybody who paid him to take their photograph. Most likely a "the dirty parasite wants me to make them look like a high end call girl despite being 75 and 90 pounds over weight"