‘The Bitter Years’ was the title of a seminal exhibition held in 1962 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, curated by Edward Steichen, and 2012 marks its 50th anniversary. The show featured 209 images by photographers who worked under the aegis of the US Farm Security Administration (FSA) in 1935–41 as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal. The Great Depression of the 1930s defined a generation in modern American history and was still a vivid memory in 1962. The FSA, set up to combat rural poverty, included an ambitious photography project that launched many photographic careers, most notably those of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange. The exhibition featured their work as well as that of ten other FSA photographers, including Ben Shahn, Carl Mydans and Arthur Rothstein. Their images are among the most remarkable in documentary photography – testimonies of a people in crisis, hit by the full force of economic turmoil and the effects of drought and dust storms. The Bitter Years celebrates some of the m
Whether they are of Abu Dhabi, California, Egypt or Emilia, all of the images he produces are lit with a constant physical light and elements that this photographer seems to always have with him the way he does with his camera bag, and through which all he wants to do is observe the world. I find such an aesthetic to be more that of a painter than a photographer somehow. Better yet, that of a post-documentary or neo-pictorialist photographer, who experiences and conceives his work to be the exprssive gesture of an artist for whom the subject is above all the opportunity for a tremendous but constant variation in his view of the world.
Images of the century (TASCHEN's 25th anniversaryspecial edition) The history of photography began some 150 yearsago, but only relatively recently has it been fully recognised as amedium in its own right. Cologne's Museum Ludwig was the firstmuseum of contemporary art to devote a substantial section tointernational photography. The L. Fritz Gruber collection, fromwhich this book is drawn, is one of the most important in Germanyand one of the most representative anywhere in the world,constituting the core of the museum's holdings. This book providesa fascinating insight into the collection's rich diversity; fromconceptual art to abstraction to reportage, all of the majormovements and genres are represented via a vast selection of thecentury's most remarkable photographs. From Ansel Adams to PietZwart, over 850 works are presented in alphabetical order byphotographer, with de*ive texts and photographers'biographical details, providing a comprehensive and indispensableoverview of 20th century photography
This compelling book chronicles the most influential ideasthat have shaped photography from the invention of thedaguerreotype in the early 19th century up to the digitalrevolution and beyond. Entertaining and intelligent, it provides afascinating resource to dip into. Arranged in a broadlychronological order to show the development of photography, theideas that comprise the book include innovative concepts, culturaland social incidents, technologies and movements. Each idea ispresented through lively text and arresting visuals, and exploreswhen the idea first evolved and its subsequent impact onphotography.
It's simple question,but there's no simple answer-indeed,each of the 280 photographs in this wonderful book offers its own,unique answer,distilling subject,setting,and cerative skill into a single arresting moment that cap-tures the viewer's imagination.And though we may find this elusive quality hard to define,we recognze is imme-diately and instinctively. William Albert Allard,one of the essayists in the book,writes,A fine portrait has the potential to tell something about the spirit of the subject that can be sensed by someone half a world and a different language away.something universal and simple:This is another person in our world and I'd like you to meet him or her. Culled from National Geographic's extraordinary archive,this collection spans more than a century and explores every cornetr of the globe and every aspect of the portraitist's art.The pictures here represent both the special visions of some of the world's finest photographers and the universal appeal of our shared humanity in all i
The Great LIFE Photographers is the mostcomprehensive anthology of LIFE photography ever published,featuring the best work of every staff photographer who worked forthe famous magazine, and that of a handful of others who shot forLIFE. It was always the photographers who made LIFE great, and thisis the most vivid and exciting portrait of those men and women thathas ever been produced. The book offers more than 100 portfolios including those ofAlfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White, Carl Mydans, GordonParks, W. Eugene Smith, Robert Capa, Ralph Morse, Nina Leen, HarryBenson, Philippe Halsman, and Joe McNally, whose work for LIFE inthe aftermath of September 11 was in the finest tradition of themagazine. Each portfolio includes a short biography, offering anintimate look at the people behind the lens. Here are the defining moments of the 20th century, includingMacArthur wading ashore by Mydans, Capa's D-Day landing at OmahaBeach and, of course, Eisenstaedt's sailor kissing the nurse. Here
Adult/High School–The enormous variety of things that people do for survival and sustenance is impressively represented in this book. Neither doctor nor lawyer is included, and only a small number of white-collar jobs make the cut. Instead, readers see clover collectors in Yemen, bootblacks in Portugal, ice fishermen in Russia, coal miners in West Virginia, and salt miners in Ukraine. The volume is arranged in geographic sections: Europe, Asia, Africa, Middle East, Americas, and Islands. Interspersed among them are three thematic portfolios: agriculture, extraction (mining), and manufacturing. Protzman contributes engaging and helpful introductions to each geographic section, as well as brief notes introducing the thematic portfolios. With few exceptions the photos are captivating and of high technical quality. Most were taken within the past 20 years, although some are historical, including a few early-20th-century images by Lewis Hine. Many of the images display poverty, hardship, and oppression (especial
In 1950, Robert Frank left his job as a photographer in NewYork to travel through Europe with his family. That summer hearrived in Valencia, Spain, which was at the time a humble, bleakplace enduring the austere conditions of the postwar period likethe rest of the country. The pictures Frank took of Valencia depictthe daily life of a fishing village. His portrayal is so naturaland clear that further verbal explanation seems superfluous; theysimply reflect, in the photo graphers words, the humanity of themoment. The photographs in this book, many of which have never beenpublished before, allow dignity to override poverty. Robert Frank,a key figure in photographic history, was born in Zurich in 1924and immigrated to the United States in 1947. He is best known forhis seminal book The Americans, first published in 1959, which gaverise to a distinct new form in the photobook, and his experimentalfilm Pull My Daisy (1959). Franks other projects include the booksBlack White and Things (1954) and The Lines of
Revised and updated, the new edition of the best-selling classic: over 500,000 copies of previous editions in print worldwide Every new generation of digital cameras offers more photographic possibilities, and the options can be baffling. This completely updated edition of Michael Freemans best-selling Complete Guide to Digital Photography introduces all the knowledge youll need to cut to the chase and create perfect photographs every time. You'll gain a thorough understanding of how today's cameras work, an introduction to digital editing techniques that make the most of the technology's capabilities, and a grounding in photography's all the expertise that Michael Freeman has gained in his successful career as a professional assignment photographer. With over 600 examples, a no-nonsense, jargon-busting glossary of terms and a full index for easy reference, it is an indispensable onestop source of photographic information and expertise.