Containing 30 essays that embody the history of photography, this collection includes contributions from Niepce, Daguerre, Fox, Talbot, Poe, Emerson, Hine, Stieglitz, and Weston, among others.
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Alan Trachtenberg is the Neil Gray, Jr. professor emeritus of English and American studies at Yale University and the author of several books, including Reading American Photographs: Images As History, Mathew Brady to Walker Evans and Shades of Hiawatha.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Although Trachtenberg's collection has been around for awhile (since 1980), it provides a very nice selection of primary source materials on the history of photography. If you want to know what people were actually thinking and saying about photography during its first 140 years or so, you can find it here. In addition, Trachtenberg's introductions to the selections are quite good--not showy or promoting some particular intellectual hobby horse, but solid and factual and useful to students--I've been studying the topic for years and have found very few factual errors or questionable judgments in his material. The main limitation is that the book stops in the 1970s, so, for my course in history of photography I have to provide additional materials for the recent developments, such as digital photography and the relations between photography and computing and the internet. The only other common item somewhat like this is Goldberg's "Photography in Print," which costs twice as much and, although it is more complete, is not twice as good, at least for the purposes of students in a first course in history of photography. My students can pick up a copy of Trachtenberg for a few dollars used, not much more new, and they've responded well to the selection of readings. Some minor downsides: there is no index, and the individual readings don't give the date of publication (though this is generally available in the "Sources" section at the end of the book). In short, within its limitations, this is an excellent source book, and a bargain in an age of obscene textbook pricing.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
All photographers should read this book once. Starts with Daguerre. Mostly crit and theory by the artists themselves. Very good selection, enjoyable reading, goes fast. Should be required reading in every art school that teaches photography. Not for advanced theorists-it's an introduction to photo theory and crit-but it's a good one!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It's a classical collection helpful not only to the people who are associated with world of photography but also to the social science and visual anthropology.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Journal Review
Book is outdated by 10 years. Focus is primarily for social causes and the like. Spot news etc. Good entry level book for those wanting to work at a TV station. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Photo Enthusiast
Awesome Seller!....Great price!....and fastest shipping around!
The book came as it was described on the description post. Great deal and thank you. Will be doing business w/this seller again, if they have what I need. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Los
Great essays.
Just happened to have this collection of essays when I needed source material for an essay I was writing. Highly informative.
Published on April 25, 2010 by Vic Setterholm
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Citations (learn more)
93
books
cite this book:
See all 93 books citing this book
- The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era by William J. Mitchell on 9 pages
- Silenced Facts: Media Montages in Contemporary Austrian Literature (Amsterdamer Publikationen zur Sprache und Literatur 152) by Bianca Theisen on 4 pages
- War and Photography: A Cultural History by Caroline Brothers on 4 pages
- Through the Negative: The Photographic Image and the Written Word in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory) by Megan Williams on 4 pages
- The Photograph: A Strange, Confined Space by Mary Price on 4 pages
See all 93 books citing this book
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
