Focus on this artwork and analyze the Technique.
This photograph depicts 23 Wall Street, the J.P. Morgan building in New York City.  Strand photographed "people hurrying to work past the banking building" situated on Wall Street, from which the photo takes its name.  the subject depicted is a real-life subject without manipulation.  The depiction of the real nature of the medium and the subject is an example of straight photography. There is no focal point, with the lines converging off of the frame of the image.  The financial building take majority of the frame.  Emphasis is placed on the strong shapes created by the architecture of the building.  The workers are included in the image, but are faceless and are trumped in size by the massive square shapes from the building they walk past.  Also, the workers are captured in motion which on film makes them appear blurry. This aesthetic that Strand creates in Wall Street is his break toward the modern, the straight photography, demonstrating that pictorialism is no longer part of his aesthetic.  Strand captured the building with clean, sharp lines.  The building is covered in the high contrast, chiaroscuro.  It is heavily in the shadows, but still creates an overwhelming presence over the people that walk past it.  These people are also shrouded in the contrast made evident with the clean lines and black and white nature of his photos and photography as a medium.  The people jump from their places, being the dark figures in the light of the sun that beams in from the left of the frame.
Strand fills the image with his recognizable aesthetic.  The photo is platinum print, one of the materials frequently used by photographers of the time.  Strand was unique in how he printed his photos.  As stated on the George Eastman House website section Notes on Photography, Strand would make large prints from small negatives.  He also left them in their matte condition that was inherent with platinum print.   With his printing techniques, he "added a richness to the image."  As with the time, the photo is entirely black and white.  There is a heavy contrast with the black and white areas of the photo.  Strand creates diagonal shapes that pull emphasis to subject of the building and away from the people.
23 Wall Street chiaroscuro pictorialism straight photography