Photography from 1839 to Today

Nowadays, most top art museums have a photography department, with areas of specialization mainly determined by large accessions from recent years. The George Eastman House predates nearly all of these institutions--and is likely the world's best museum devoted specifically to the photographic medium and its technology and apparatuses. The comprehensiveness of this collection is its most impressive quality, reflecting the broad approach to collecting favored during the tenure of director Beaumont Newhall, as well as the acquisition of some big private collections decades ago. Edited by Eastman House curators, this book is both a reasonably complete history of photography and a catalog of the show celebrating the museum's 50th anniversary. It's a brilliantly curated selection of 743 photographs chosen to represent museum holdings 500 times that number. Almost bricklike in size and shape, it contains small but beautifully printed images so wide-ranging in scope that they serve as a surpassingly fine armature on which to hang the straightforward text--a retelling of photographic history from the days of Daguerre to now. An outstanding, affordable title; recommended for all collections.
-Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.