American Photography 1890-1965 - Hardcover

Galassi, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810961431 ISBN 13: 9780810961432

Publisher: Harry N Abrams Inc, 1995

Synopsis

American photography from the turn of the century through the mid-1960s offers one of the richest and most coherent traditions in the history of the medium. This book explores that tradition in depth through superb reproductions of 183 photographs from the outstanding collection of The Museum of Modern Art.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century photographs became radically easier to make and to reproduce. The result was a vast new range of audiences and applications for photography. From untutored snap-shooter to specialized professional, the swelling ranks of photographers produced a sprawling diversity of new pictures, which recorded and helped to create modern America. At the same time, there arose an elite movement that withdrew from the undisciplined bustle of the modern world and claimed for photography a position among the fine arts.
The first part of the introductory essay concisely outlines the evolution and interplay of photography's high-art and vernacular traditions. The second part traces the growth of the pioneering photography program at The Museum of Modern Art in which Ansel Adams, Edward Steichen, and other leading American photographers played decisive roles.
Luc Sante's essay, "A Nation of Pictures," places photography at the center of a lively reconsideration of modern American culture, which touches on music, the movies, the magazines, and a great deal more.
A splendid gallery of photographs follows the essays. American photography from Jacob Riis and Alfred Stieglitz to Richard Avedon and Diane Arbus is set forth through a carefully ordered sequence, in which groups of pictures conceived as works of fine art alternate with groups of pictures that served a myriad of worldly functions. Major figures, such as Paul Strand, Edward Weston, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Harry Callahan, and Robert Frank, are each represented by six or more photographs. Dozens of other distinguished photographers are included as well, and many remarkable but unfamiliar pictures join the landmark works.

About this title

From Library Journal

There are few surprises among the photographs selected for this collection: from Edwin Hale Lincoln's Thistle and Walker Evans's Brooklyn Bridge to Richard Avedon's Brigitte Bardot, students of photography will recognize all but a few. But the collection's special appeal, in addition to the two fine essays, is as a survey of the medium from Lincoln to Diane Arbus. The book is organized chronologically but indulges in intersting juxtapositions: Edward Weston's undulating Pepper No. 30 is contrasted with Imogen Cunningham's contorted Nude; Nickolas Murry's plaintive Babe Ruth with Edward Steichen's veiled, furtive Gloria Swanson. There is some overlap between the essays by Peter Galassi, the photography curator at the Museum of Modern Art, and by critic Luc Sante, but their focuses vary. Galassi is concerned with the establishment of photography as an art, while Sante speaks more to the effects of that art, going so far as to say, "It might seem that twentieth-century America was invented by its photographers." Judge for yourself. While a good photography collection will feature monographs of many of the artists collected here, the book's ability to condense the broad field recommends it to all libraries collecting in photography.?Adam Mazmanian, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Along with a handful of photographs that are new and unfamiliar, this sumptuous, satisfying book presents the photographic canon--185 classic images, dating from 1888 to 1967. The Museum of Modern Art, whose collection the volume showcases, has long been the premier institution for defining the medium. The museum's approach has been to take keen interest in both artistic and vernacular photographs, and the book is organized around alternating sections of one or the other. The conversation between the artistic and the applied has provoked the most stimulating aesthetic arguments in photography, and Galassi, MoMA's present photography curator, presents it clearly here. His accompanying essay concentrates on the history of photography within the museum, and Luc Sante's strives to situate the progress of the medium within the wider cultural context as it interweaves photography and such disparate events as Edison's invention of the electric lamp, World War II, and the impact of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Gretchen Garner

About this edition

• Publisher: Harry N Abrams Inc
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0810961431
• ISBN 13: 9780810961432
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256