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A history of photography compiled by a man who specialised in making people look fabulous and a historian determined to prove the medium actually has a brain as well as cheekbones. The Magic Image ? The Genius of Photography from 1839 to the Present Day (Little, Brown and Company, 1975) by Cecil Beaton and Gail Buckland is one big, lavishly illustrated love letter to the camera ? from the days when exposures took longer than some relationships to the moment photography confidently announced, ?Yes, I am an art form, thanks.? Inside you get: Early, haunted-looking daguerreotypes, where everyone appears to be holding their breath and reconsidering all their life choices. Victorians patiently sitting still while technology figures out how to deal with their facial hair. Pictorialists trying to prove photography can be as dreamy as painting (but with more clouds). The moment modernism strides in, knocks over the soft-focus lenses and starts taking pictures of factories, streets and people caught off-guard. Photojournalists, fashion photographers, surrealists, portraitists and that whole mid-20th-century wave of ?Oh, so this is what truth looks like when you don?t retouch it too much.? Cecil Beaton brings insider gossip and impeccable taste; Gail Buckland brings discipline, context and the ability to remember who invented what and why. Together they walk you through the first 135 years of photography as if giving a guided tour of a very eccentric family: eccentric great-uncle Daguerre, intense cousin Stieglitz, glamorous aunt Avedon, and that one relative who insists on photographing peeling posters and calling it art (spoiler: it often is). The book is bursting with images ? iconic, obscure, strange and beautiful ? plus commentary that is both admiring and occasionally just a touch bitchy in the most civilised way. It?s the coffee-table volume that actually wants you to learn something between gasps. This copy is supplied by Crappy Old Books , where it?s confidently graded Condition: Good , which in our finely tuned, absolutely-not-made-up system means: The dust jacket (if present) shows honest shelfwear: mild rubbing, small edge nicks, perhaps a faint crease ? more ?handled by humans? than ?stored in cryogenic perfection.? The boards are sound and well-aligned, ready to support several centuries of artistic ambition without flinching. The pages are clean, securely bound and gently toned ? think ?soft gallery lighting? rather than ?smoked in darkroom for forty years.? Minor bumps, light scuffs and possibly a discreet previous owner?s name are officially categorised as documented provenance and are, of course, included at no extra cost. ISBN: 0297768530 , for cataloguers who like their visual history properly numbered before it vanishes into the digital ether. Recommended if: You?ve ever scrolled past a famous photograph and thought, ?I should probably know why that?s important.? You like books that let you time-travel via images ? from stiff-collared sitters to casually slouching rock stars ? with commentary that actually keeps up. You enjoy the idea that photography began as a chemical miracle and ended up as something we do to our lunch, and want to savour the grand, glorious bit in between. The Magic Image ? The Genius of Photography from 1839 to the Present Day : a century and a bit of light, shadow, ego and genius, bound into one generous volume ? now in solid, honestly worn Good condition, ready to sit on your shelf and silently judge every blurry phone snap you take from now on.
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