PhotoHistorica, Landmarks in Photography: Rare Images from the Collection of the Royal Photographic Society - Hardcover

Roberts, Pam

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1579651690 ISBN 13: 9781579651695

Publisher: Artisan, 2000

Synopsis

For the first time, photographs from the Royal Photographic Society are gathered together in a fascinating, unique tribute to the art form. Highlights include one of the world's oldest photographic images; rare works by Stieglitz, Steichen, and Coburn; selections from the collections of Julia Margaret Cameron and Roger Fenton; extraordinary images from mid-nineteenth-century travelers who brought back "exotic" prints from the East; and eccentric and beautiful works from unknown professional and amateur photographers. Taken together, they represent an unbroken thread linking the development of genres, styles, and techniques.

From portraiture to journalism, landscape to fashion, PhotoHistorica juxtaposes work both familiar and unfamiliar, putting images into a provocative thematic context. Every page reveals the enduring power of photography.

About this title

Review:

Even the most jaded browser of photographic history collections will covet this handsomely produced volume of superb images from the 1840s to the 1950s. Organized loosely by subject matter (portraiture, social documentary, nature and science, travel), PhotoHistorica contains more than 300 images by the likes of Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Stieglitz, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Roger Fenton, and Edward Steichen. But the most intriguing aspect of this book, drawn from the collection of an organization founded by amateur photographers in mid-19th-century London, is its inclusion of unusual prints known only to specialists. A full page is devoted to an anonymous turn-of-the-century photographer's image of hairs on the wing of a house fly, a mesmerizing abstract pattern of tapering black shapes. German photographer Heinrich Kühn imbued a 1905 view of three women in peasant dress trudging up a sand dune in the midday sun with a timeless, iconic quality. The luminous effects possible in black-and-white photography of the era produced sensual depictions of nudes and moody landscape views, both rural and urban. During the same period, the Autochrome process--color transparencies on glass--yielded brilliant effects that look startlingly modern.

The "Art" and "Nudes and Fashion" sections contain some images we now view as kitsch, including Fred Holland Day's earnest photograph of himself as Jesus on the cross and Annie Brigman's outdoor shot of a nude boy with a wood sprite's antennae who ponders a symbolic glass globe. But the book, with helpful commentary by Pam Roberts, curator of the collection, chooses to embrace the spirit of wonder that suffused photography in its first century. And it's almost impossible to resist. --Cathy Curtis

From the Inside Flap:

A PHOTOGRAPHER'S LENS, remarked Edward Steichen, captures "the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and the skies that man has inherited, and the wealth - and confusion - man has created." PhotoHistorica is a testament to this truth.

Drawn from The Royal Photographic Society's archives - over 270,000 images dating from 1826 to the present day - the more than 300 photographs gathered here represent and unbroken thread linking the development of photographic genres, styles, and techniques. Some of the works are instantly recognizable, some are unknowns yet offer a landmark moment through their subject matter or style. Many are published here for the first time.

Highlights include one of the world's oldest photographic images; rare pieces by Stielitz, Steichen, and Coburn; selections from the world's largest collections of work by Julia Margaret Cameron and Roger Fenton; and eccentric and beautiful images from both amateur and professional photographers, PhotoHistorica puts the formation of The Royal Photographic Society into historical and cultural perspective.

Divided into portraiture and domestic photography, nature and science, social documentary and architecture, and landscape and art, the book pays tribute to the enduring power of photography as it enchants and informs every reader.

About this edition

• Publisher: Artisan
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1579651690
• ISBN 13: 9781579651695
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336