This portrait is one of many that Paul Strand has taken. The women in the picture is blind which is why she has a sign around her neck that says "blind". He took this picture with a false lens attached next to the camera. The lens allowed him to point the camera in one direction and take the picture in another.
Paul had been seeing this view for twenty-four years. He hadn't noticed the way it actually looked. It took him years to see this picture like he views it now. He didn't know he had a great piece of work right in front of him.
This photograph represented modern life in the twentieth century. A lot of machines were beginning to be invented. These machines turned into American art. These machines also represented wealth. Paul was interested in cars and machinary since he was young so it wasn't a surprise that he was photographing them.