Beauty in Photography: Essays in Defense of Traditional Values (Paperback)

by Robert Adams (Author, Photographer)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"For Adams, art is not some timid diversion or self indulgent entertainment, but goes to the heart of who we are as civilized, compassionate human beings."--Jacob Stockinger, The Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin

"Eight eloquent and thought-provoking essays."--Chris Keledjian, Artweek

"The sort of collection of essays to which one can return repeatedly."--Michael Edelson, Camera 35
-- Review

Review

"For Adams, art is not some timid diversion or self indulgent entertainment, but goes to the heart of who we are as civilized, compassionate human beings."--Jacob Stockinger, The Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin

"Eight eloquent and thought-provoking essays."--Chris Keledjian, Artweek

"The sort of collection of essays to which one can return repeatedly."--Michael Edelson, Camera 35

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Aperture (June 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0893813680
• ISBN-13: 978-0893813680
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #296,860 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars recommended, November 27, 2004

By	Pen Name "Pen" (Germany) - See all my reviews

For me, there are two key assertions in Robert Adams' "Beauty in Photography". First, that we "live in discouraging hours of society's apparent decay" (p. 88). Second, that the purpose of art is to "help us meet our worst fear, the suspicion that life may be chaos and that therefore our suffering is without meaning" (p. 25).

From these two assertions Adams develops his interpretation of photography: Photography detects, extracts and emphasizes the beauty around us, and by doing so it points toward something deeper in the world, an organizing power, a coherence supporting the world and our lifes. To Adams, photography is a spiritual exercise, making bearable an otherwise decaying sourrounding.

Art not concerned with depicting the world beautifully is, to Adams, mere "decoration". Thus, Adams tells us little interesting about most modern art, and his approach does not generalize, for instance, to music. That beauty can exist as such, that it can tell us something about ourselves even without refering to things in the world: This does not seem to be Adams experience.

In these very conservative views I disagree with Adams. Still, I recommend his essays to anyone who wants to understand why some photography is moving us while other is not. Even if Adams is not telling the whole story -probably nobody will- he is an excellent writer who talks about art in a clear and understandable way.

The only disappointment with the book was the poor reproduction quality of the images depicted. As a publisher specializing in photography books Aperture could do better.

17 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a MUST READ for serious photographers!, August 25, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Oysterville, WA 98641) - See all my reviews

This is an important collection of essays for the serious photographer and for anyone interested in the art of photography. This book is destined to become a classic and will be read a hundred years from now. Adams' many excellent books of his own photography are testimony to the validity of what he writes about. I have read these essays over and over again and continue to learn. Robert Adams is one of the few photographers whose writing matches his photography.

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Gem, November 7, 2008

By	Ikasumi (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews

This slender volume is my favorite among the many books I have read on photography - a subject about which I have found it frustratingly hard to find good, clear writing. This is a book to be read, marked up, reread, savored. Adams cuts to the heart of not only photography, but art in general. He is an outstanding writer - clear, unambiguous, and refreshingly free of jargon. Some may understandably fault the low-end quality of the photographic reproductions, but I found them sufficient to get the points across. The interested reader can seek out better quality versions of those photographers' works; this is not a book of photographs but one about photographs.