The Face in the Lens: Anonymous Photographs [Hardcover]

Robert Flynn Johnson (Author), Alexander McCall Smith (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0520259831 | ISBN-13: 978-0520259836 | Edition: 1

Anonymous photography has a magic all its own. The intriguing images assembled here by collector and curator Robert Flynn Johnson are all mysterious, but their appeal is various. By turns poignant, humorous, erotic, and disturbing, their subject is the human condition. In ten stunning chapters every aspect of human experience--both public and private--is explored. Richly reproduced and with subtle tonalities marking their age, over 220 photographs showcase the work of photographers whose identities have been lost in time. The images are never anything less than mesmerizing and include previously unseen portraits of such stars as Cary Grant, Richard Burton, and Marlene Dietrich. Introduced by Alexander McCall Smith, this follow-up to Johnson's widely acclaimed Anonymous touches on birth, marriage, death, disease, hope, glory, and despair and a plethora of additional emotions, events, and human states, and will capture the imagination of any reader.
Copub: Thames and Hudson

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This mounting of photographs taken by now-unknown hands is different, and if you can keep from smiling broadly at several of them, you should loosen up."--Booklist

"(Explores) unintentional beauty, one that owes its existence to the nature of the camera itself."--Art & Antiques

"Almost without exception (the pictures) are arresting accidents of artistic expression, alive with personality."--San Francisco Magazine

"A very eclectic collection of beautiful but strangely intriguing photographs."--Roanoke Times

About the Author

Robert Flynn Johnson is Curator Emeritus of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. He is the author of many books, including Anonymous: Enigmatic Images from Unknown Photographers. Alexander McCall Smith is the author of over sixty books, including the award-winning No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (May 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520259831
• ISBN-13: 978-0520259836
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 10.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,170,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Incredible How Much Amateur Talent Is Out There, May 26, 2009

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This review is from: The Face in the Lens: Anonymous Photographs (Hardcover)

I've got an entire wall of built-in bookcases filled with remarkable collections of anonymous photographs. This is one of the best such collections. My favorite has always been the volume entitled "America's Yesterdays: Images of Our Lost Past Discovered in the Photography Achieves of the Library of Congress" by Oliver Ormerod, Jensen. The only photographic collection I like better is "The Family of Man" a collection by Edward Steichen made for the Museum of Modern Art in the mid-1950s. However, in the "Family of Man" we know who the photographers were, so maybe that's not a fair comparison. The fact that these anonymous amateur snapshots can even be mentioned in the same breath, as "The Family of Man" is a huge recommendation all by itself.

One of the chief reasons I like this volume so well is that every single photograph is powerful and can stand pretty much on it's own merits. The two surreal snapshots on page 130 and 131 are wonderful examples of comedy in photography. They show the humor of both the photographer and the models. One is a stoned looking semi-nude lying on her sofa about to be frightened by a corny looking boggy man who looks a lot like a giant stalk of celery. The second is a headless man standing half hidden in the bushes with his head in his hands. The head is a football wearing sunglasses. The pictures are better seen than described. There is an equally memorable portrait on the page before of a man with a profile like a square jawed cartoon character. It is a Hollywood location picture but the viewer could care less because it's a terrific photo even if, like me, one doesn't recognize the people portrayed. The section of the book entitled "Celebrity" includes many candid shots taken on movie sets and at news events. They may well have been taken by unknown pros because of the quality of the pictures and the fact that the photographers were allowed in usually very restricted areas. This section includes candid images of Shirley Temple, Ellery Queen, Charles Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, Howard Carter at the entrance to the King Tut's Tomb, Charles Lindbergh just after he landed in Paris, Marlene Dietrich, Mata Hari dancing outside (only the second photograph I've ever seen of the famous spy), Benito Mussolini and a skinny, gangly teenage Princess Elizabeth to name a only a few. A mug shot of Al Capone graces the Adversity section.

Besides "Celebrity" the other nine chapters include: Immaturity, Masculinity, Femininity, Activity, Festivity, Adversity and Inevitability among others. There is the obligatory selection of nudes, often jokes done for the camera by the camera subject such as a woman sans her panties mooning the camera in a deserted French Subway Tunnel Staircase. The book includes a lot of humor and that's one of the things that make the collection so interesting. There is a very short (one page) essay at the end of the book entitled "Collecting Anonymous Photographs." The collection includes two insightful essays at the book's beginning; Alexander McCall Smith titles the first "Being Human" and Robert Flynn Johnson names the other "Whole in One." The pictures are the most important part of this coffee table book of photographs. They were very well chosen and it's amazing that so many have been located and saved from obscurity for future generations. The readers and viewers of this book can only marvel at the result of George Eastman's bringing photography to the general public. Thanks, Mr. Eastman. This volume is filled with "Kodak Moments." It will be interesting to see if the zillions of digital photographs being taken today survive as well as these film based photographs and prints.