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Category Archives: Criticism and Commentary
In Search of Things as They Are
Disappearing Witness by Gretchen Garner. Johns Hopkins University Press. Gretchen Garner thinks documentary photography contributes something that is worth preserving. For much of the 20th Century, Â that would have seemed like a ridiculously self-evident perspective. Documentary photography, or more precisely, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Criticism and Commentary, On Photography, Photography Histories
Tagged Diane Arbus, Documentary Photography, Edward Weston, Eugene Smith, Francis Bacon, Gretchen Garner, History of Photography, Life Magazine, Photographic Criticism, Robert Frank, Rolling Stone Magazine, Wallace Stevens, William Mortensen
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Gretchen Garner is hot!
Disappearing Witness. Gretchen Garner. I thought that might get your attention. To clarify, and to avoid any domestic problems, it’s really Garner’s book Disappearing Witness that I’m infatuated with. Most photography critiques don’t exactly qualify as page-turners. But, I find … Continue reading
So, what’s Philip Gefter got against Annie Leibovitz?
A lot, apparently. In his Photography After Frank , most of Gefter’s essays are complementary profiles of a variety of photographers, some famous, some not so much. But, when it comes to his review of Leibovitz’s own book, A Photographer’s … Continue reading
Two Languages: Words and Pictures
Philip Gefter, Photography After Frank. “Many people approach the act of looking at photographs with an inherent blind spot. They need to know what it is before they can appreciate how it looks.” For me this statement, and the essay … Continue reading
What I’m Reading
Photography After Frank. Essays by Philip Gefter. I’ll want to write more about this book. But, it’s so good that I thought I’d put in a quick plug right away. It’s not really what I expected. Rather than a single … Continue reading
Thinking about Beaumont
The History of Photography by Beaumont Newhall. The Museum of Modern Art (1982 Edition) Beaumont Newhall’s History of Photography is so much a part of the history that it documents that it can be hard to read it today and … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Criticism and Commentary, On Photography, Photography Histories
Tagged Ansel Adams, Beaumont Newhall, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, Emmet Gowin, Fredericks' Photographic Temple of Art, Gertrude Kasebier, Henry Peach Robinson, History of Photography, Lee Friedlander, Looking at Photographs, Mortenson, Photographic Criticism, Robert Capa, Robert Frank, Stephen Shore, William Eggleston, Winogrand
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How to Read a History of Photography
I’ve discovered a secret about reading histories and criticisms of photography. It’s the iPhone. Or, alternatively an iPad or iTouch. Almost every book on photography contains a disclaimer from the author that he or she regrets that the practical limits … Continue reading
A Narrative of Paradigms
American Photography by Miles Orvell, Oxford History of Art Series. In his introduction, Miles Orvell sets out a challenge for himself: to tell the history of photography in America as “a narrative of successive paradigms, rather than a string of … Continue reading
Oxford History’s thought-provoking review of photography
The Photograph by Graham Clarke The Photograph by Graham Clarke is the first of three planned books on photography in the Oxford History of Art series. The second is American Photography by Miles Orvell, which I’ll review at a later … Continue reading
Philip Gefter on Chinese Photographer Hai Bo
On the Daily Beast, Philip Gefter has a new essay on Chinese photographer Hai Bo. Gefter is the author of Photography after Frank and former picture editor for the New York Times. He writes of Hai Bo, “One image, Passing … Continue reading →
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