Paul Strand is born in New York City on October 16 to Jacob Strand, a merchant, and Matilda Strand (née Arnstein).

1907-09
Studies with documentary photographer Lewis Hine at the Ethical Culture School, New York City.

Begins work as a commercial photographer.

Has his first one-man show at Alfred Stieglitz's gallery, 291. Stieglitz also publishes six Strand photographs in Camera Work, Number 48. Eleven more Strand photographs are published in 1917 in the final issue of Camera Work, Numbers 49–50, including Abstraction, Bowls (1916), From the Viaduct (1916), Blind Woman (1916), and The White Fence (1916).

With painter and photographer Charles Sheeler, makes his first film, Manhatta, which is screened the following year in New York City under the title, New York the Magnificent.

Begins making nature studies and close-up photographs of machine parts.

Marries Rebecca Salsbury (their marriage lasts until 1932).

Included in the Seven Americans exhibition at the Anderson Galleries, New York, with Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Arthur Dove, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Alfred Stieglitz.

Makes his first trip to Colorado and New Mexico, where he photographs tree-root forms and Mesa Verde cliff dwellings. He continues to photograph in these locales on various trips through 1932.

Travels to the Gaspé Peninsula, Quebec, where he makes his first sustained investigation of a specific locality.

1932-34
Lives in Mexico, where he makes landscape and portrait photographs.

1933-43
Works on various film projects in Mexico and the United States, including Redes (The Wave) (1936) and Native Land (1942). Helps establish Frontier Films, a non-profit educational motion picture production group, and acts as president of the group from 1937-42.

Goes to Gaspé and makes a new series of prints. Marries Virginia Stevens (their marriage lasts until 1949).

Photographs of Mexico, a portfolio of twenty photogravures (prints made from engraving plates prepared by photographic methods), is published in New York by Virginia Stevens.

1943-44
Travels to Vermont and returns to still photography after a decade working in film.

Has a one-man show, Photographs 1915–1945 by Paul Strand, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Publishes Time in New England. Travels to France and begins work on La France de profil.

Marries Hazel Kingsbury and makes France his permanent home. Strand continues work on La France de profil, which he publishes in 1952.

1952-54
Makes photographs in Italy, some of which later appear in a book with text by Cesare Zavattini, Un Paese (1955).

Makes photographs on South Uist, Scotland, and the surrounding islands for the book Tir a'Mhurain, Outer Hebrides (1962).

1955-58
Relocates to Orgeval, France. Works on portraits of prominent French intellectuals and begins close-ups of his garden in Orgeval.

1959-60
Travels to and photographs Egypt and Romania. The Egypt pictures are published later in Living Egypt (1969).

Photographic trip to Morocco.

1963-64
At the invitation of President Kwame Nkrumah, travels to Ghana to make photographs of the country. Posthumously published as Ghana: An African Portrait (1976).

The Philadelphia Museum of Art organizes Paul Strand Photographs, a major retrospective of his work. The exhibition travels to the City Art Museum of St. Louis; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco.

Paul Strand dies in France on March 31.