Before 1915, Strand had focussed on the softer Pictorialist style of photography. The phrase ‘Pictorialist’ referred to the artistic aesthetics of painting at the time. Pictorialists aimed to situate photography within the context of other art forms through recreating a softer, more traditional, painterly effect. Strand broke away from this aesthetic to embrace a more abstract, objective style. This closely framed photograph of rocks is an example of Strand’s belief in the objective nature of reality. Using a very sharp lens, Strand creates a tightly structured composition that relies on the richness of texture and different grey tones to give the image its strength. Strand did not approve of cropping or manipulating the negative, preferring to compose an image fully in the camera’s viewfinder before exposure. Influenced by the British art critic Clive Bell, Strand believed in the idea of ‘significant form’ which was when ‘lines and colour combined in a particular way, certain form and relations of forms, stir our aesthetic emotions.’