Tir A'Mhurain: The Outer Hebrides of Scotland

In 1954 Paul Strand and his wife Hazel Kingsbury Strand spent three months traversing the rugged island of South Uist, off the west coast of Scotland. Tir a’Mhurain is a collection of photographs that reflects the impressions they gathered during their stay. Juxtaposing people and landscape, Strand’s beautifully sequenced photographs depict the perfect complicity he saw between nature and habitation in this wild terrain. Whether it is a view of the rocks and the sea or a grinning shepherd boy; scudding clouds hanging over seaside houses or the wrinkled face of an old lady framed by a knitted shawl, Strand’s images transcend the ephemeral. This extended portrait captures the essence and the complexity of a singular place. In the spirit of Aperture’s editions of Strand’s classic works La France de Profil (2001) and Un Paese (1997), this volume celebrates the wholesome beauty of everyday life.