Paul Strand in Mexico  Aperture Gallery 547 W. 27th St., 4th Fl.
(212) 505-5555 Through Nov. 13  As a young photographer, Paul
Strand (1890-1976) produced stark, modernist images of such
power they still exert great influence. In the mid-1930s, he
spent several years in Mexico working as a photographer and
filmmaker. Aperture is displaying almost 100 of Mr. Strand's
Mexican pictures—sympathetic portraits, dramatic photographs of
vernacular church sculptures, and renderings of architecture and
landscapes in the harsh sun. His movie "The Wave" is shown in an
alcove, as is personal memorabilia.  "Cristo with Thorns,
Huexotla, 1933" Aperture/The Paul Strand Archive  Mr. Strand was
reading Marx at this time, and considered his work "a criticism
of capitalism a system I detest," so all the portraits are of
peasants and tend to valorize them. Mr. Strand made the most of
his considerable technical skills; for instance, "Woman and
child, Hidalgo, 1933" is a simple composition, the woman in the
middle with her back to