Eisenstaedt: Remembrances - Softcover

Eisenstaedt, Alfred

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0821225979 ISBN 13: 9780821225974

Publisher: Little Brown / Bulfinch, 1999

Synopsis

Celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of Eisenstaedt's birth, a far-reaching glimpse into the groundbreaking work of the photographer who captured many dramatic images from all over the world details his life, from his childhood in Germany to his many years at Life magazine. Original.

About this title

Review

If you really want to know what the 20th century looked like from a front-row seat at the main stage, this book will show you. Alfred Eisenstaedt, who was born in 1898 and lived until 1995, apparently didn't miss a thing. To give but a glimpse of the view he captured, this volume, published on the hundredth anniversary of his birth, includes scores of his most famous photographs. The portrait of a scowling Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Culture and Propaganda, showing exactly what educated evil looks like; a sultry Marilyn Monroe, somewhat fuzzy around the edges because the flustered photographer used the wrong film; the adorable Mary Martin (pre-Pan), girlishly singing a Cole Porter tune; Jackie Kennedy, radiant, seated between her husband and the man who would succeed him; Bertrand Russell; Martin Buber; Helen Keller; Albert Einstein; Gordon Parks; Rebecca West; Learned Hand--they're all here.

There is no way for any collection to do real justice to a photographer of Eisenstaedt's reach, but this book goes far, including not just the celebrity images but many others that give a keen sense of the times in which he lived. There is a streetwalker in knee-high boots on the Rue Saint-Denis; a polished Rolls-Royce in front of the Ritz; an aged accordionist begging for a living outside Carnegie Hall; a Mississippi fiddler.

Like those of his contemporaries Cartier-Bresson, Lartigue, and Kertész, Eisenstaedt's photographs stop you in your tracks, their meanings more complexly layered with every passing decade. Take his shot of 5- and 6-year-olds, wide-eyed and screaming at a puppet show in a Paris park in l963, just as television was beginning its long, depressing siege on childhood's imaginative realm. Or the image of women in their spring chapeaus, taking afternoon tea on the roof of the Excelsior Hotel in Florence in 1934, pretending that their pleasant world would endure. The historical resonance of such images is what makes this a thinking person's book, but of course it is possible to love it just for the celebrities, nearly all of them now gone. --Peggy Moorman

About the Author

Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995) began his photographic career in Berlin in 1929. Six years later he emigrated to the United States, where he joined the prepublication staff of LIFE magazine. In his 60 years with LIFE, he completed over 2,500 assignments and 86 covers. His work was the subject of 13 books. Eisenstaedt received the National Medal of Arts in November 1989 for extraordinary photographs that document the tragedies and triumphs he has witnessed over a lifetime. In 1998, LIFE magazine established the annual Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards to celebrate the best photographers each year in American magazines. A special Eisie awards issue of LIFE will be published in late March 1999 bringing renewed attention to Eisenstaedt
Bryan Holme had a long and distinguished career in art book publishing. He was the editor and designer of 9 books on Eisenstaedt.

About this edition

• Publisher: Little Brown / Bulfinch
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0821225979
• ISBN 13: 9780821225974
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192