In this 1917 photograph depicting a close-up view of regular kitchen bowls, Paul Strand studies the effects of light and shadow by reducing everyday objects to a graphic pattern of geometric circular shapes that dismantles the structure of the object, making it almost abstract, and not easily recognizable. Paul Strand said that his "abstract" studies were a matter of clarifying "for me what I now refer to as the abstract method, which was first revealed in the paintings of Picasso, Braque, Léger and others… ." These close-up shots follow his close-up portraits of ordinary people taken in the street at the end of 1916, which border on social documentary.

Strand’s work, published in the last issue of Camera Work in June 1917, went as far as possible in defining a photographic point of view celebrating the creative freedom found in the photographic act. Alfred Stieglitz added a short essay in support of this new aesthetic: "The work is brutally direct; devoid of all flim-flam; devoid of trickery and of any ‘ism’; devoid of any attempt to mystify an ignorant public, including the photographers themselves." Strand’s close-up photo of bowls introduced a new photography that objectively analyzes the features of ordinary people and objects.