Camera Work: The Complete Illustrations 1903-1917

A facsimile reproduction of 559 original illustrations originally published in the 50 editions of the journal "Camera Work". The magazine was founded and published by Alfred Stieglitz and provided a forum for American photographers' work as well as an introduction to the European avant-garde.

For 50 issues, Stieglitz carefully gathered, composed, edited, and produced Camera Work, a journal dedicated to a medium more technically established than artistically recognized. Roberts, curator of the Royal Photographic Society in Bath, England, has done a quietly effective job of editing prose pieces from Camera Work, offering her own essay assessing the role of both Stieglitz and his journal and assuring that page after page of sepia-toned reproductions march in the same sequence as originally published. Yet for all its dignity and potential significance to both an informed lay audience and scholars, this is a hefty little book that fails in format. It is a squat, thick, heavy paperback. The volume seems more a machinist's manual than an aesthetic delight to be enjoyed comfortably. For those fascinated by Stieglitz, excited by the beginnings of modern art, and eager to study text and visuals of the artistic ferment at the turn of the century, this comprehensive look at the world of the legendary Camera Work deserves better packaging. Recommended with reservations for larger photography collections.?David Bryant, New Canaan P.L., CT
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.