Anonymous: Enigmatic Images from Unknown Photographers [Hardcover]

Robert Flynn Johnson (Author), William Boyd (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2004

Like gold nuggets amongst pebbles, the more than 200 images reproduced in this book include many of transcendent beauty and psychological insight, all with the magical, mysterious charge that comes from using our own imaginations to spectulate on the circumstances in which they were taken. Superbly produced with an introduction by internationally bestselling author William Boyd and with texts by the photographic and print historian Robert Flynn Johnson, this is a photography book whose very anonymity makes it unique.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert Flynn Johnson is Curator of Prints, Achenbach Foundation, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. He has been an avid collector of anonymous photographs for many years. William Boyd is the much-lauded author of numerous bestselling novels, including a fictional biography, Nat Tate: American Artist, 1928-60, featuring anonymous photography.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (October 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500542929
• ISBN-13: 978-0500542927
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 10 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,392,443 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "What, in short, makes a photograph good?", January 4, 2005

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Anonymous: Enigmatic Images from Unknown Photographers (Hardcover)

The answer to the question posed by William Boyd, who with Robert Flynn Johnson has gathered and commented on this portfolio of fascinating photographs, lies between the covers of this enthralling book. None of the photographers represented herein are known for their artistry: actually they are not known at all and hence the title. But the images in this book touch nearly every human emotion and do so all the more powerfully because their are 'incidental' glimpses at the human condition and the planet earth.

Photographs of the footprints of love, birth, war, death, joy, celebration, fantasy, surrealism, faith - all are here among the 200 odd images that fill these pages. Reading this volume is akin to revisiting childhood (both the good and the evil vantages) or rummaging around trunks of forgotten moments someone captured for posterity on film, moments that can bring chuckles as easily as gasps, memories that are both extremely personal and universally participatory.

But as with all fine photographic volumes, viewing the images is far stronger in impact than lumpy words, especially comments from an isolated observer. Read this book for the personal reasons that initiated these pictures and open your mind to the myriad experiences that constitute life. Grady Harp, January 2004

24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not enigmatic enough, November 18, 2004

By 

Pat Padua "ppad" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anonymous: Enigmatic Images from Unknown Photographers (Hardcover)

This is a handsomely produced tome with some wonderful pictures. But sorting out images by theme robs the viewer of an element of surprise - the start one gets when discovering an oddly arresting image at a flea market, or tucked away in an old paperback. A more successful collection of such elusive images is Other Pictures, put out by Twin Palms. It is one of my favorite photography books, period; serendipitous, like the best street photography; mysterious; totally unexpected.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly amazing, January 6, 2005

By 

J. Roose (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Anonymous: Enigmatic Images from Unknown Photographers (Hardcover)

I purchased this book after reading a glowing newspaper article about it and I couldn't be more pleased. Besides being beautiful it is a very thought provoking book with splendid comments by the author.