How You Look At It: Photographs of the 20th Century [Hardcover]

Heinz Liesbrock (Author), Thomas Weski (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2, 2000

Contributions by Thomas Weski. Text by Heinz Liesbrock.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

How You Look at It is the catalog of a major photographic exhibition organized by the Sprengel Museum in Hanover, Germany. Its thesis--that photography is the defining art of the 20th century--is straightforward, but its organization is unusual. Rather than a chronological survey of iconic images, the book presents only 40 photographers, from the pioneering Frenchman Atget to postwar Americans and modern German masters like Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky. This enables the chosen artists to be shown in depth, though the criteria for their being chosen are not clear to this reviewer. Exposure to European material will benefit the American audience to whom this English-language edition of the book is directed, but it is unfortunate that, apart from Tomatsu Shomei, no non-Western photographer is included. Just as it took Robert Frank, a Swiss, to shock the art establishment in 1959 with the raw images of his collection The Americans, Americans today can learn from the formal explorations of their transatlantic counterparts. Examples of non-photographic artworks are sprinkled through the book--a Picasso portrait, for example, or a David Hockney cityscape--giving context to the photographs. The thoughtful text consists of essays by the two curators of the show and three other critics who analyze the current theoretical underpinnings of photography. This is not easy reading; the translations successfully preserve the denseness of the original German. The 500 images, however, speak for themselves, making How You Look at It valuable material for anyone interested in photography and its relations to contemporary cultural issues. --John Stevenson

From Library Journal

This book accompanies a 2000 exhibit of the same name, jointly sponsored by the Sprengel Museum Hannover and the St delsches Kunstinstitute and St dische Galerie, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The editors have put together a large group of pictures to support their assertion that photography is the definitive art form of the 20th century, one that has had a profound effect on the way we see the world, the process by which artists create images, and the course of world events. This is not a survey of 20th-century photography, so many of which were published last year. Rather, by carefully sequencing and juxtaposing photographs and other works of art (paintings, sculpture), the editors establish a kind of dialog that reveals common messages by two or more artists. These groupings work most of the time, though sometimes the nonphotographic comparisons are puzzling at best. The essays are academic in the worst sense but may have suffered from bad translations. One of the most valuable parts of the book is the end matter, which provides biographies, exhibitions, bibliographies of artists in the book, along with full information on each work reproduced (or exhibited). For academic and large public library art and photohistory collections.DKathleen Collins, Bank of America Corporate Archives, San Francisco
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc.; 1st edition (July 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891024213
• ISBN-13: 978-1891024214
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 8.9 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #382,313 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I've bought this book for everyone I'd like to impress., October 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: How You Look At It: Photographs of the 20th Century (Hardcover)

This book is focused. The best part about it is that it features photographers who are lesser known. The collection of photagraphs have a genuine fresh and modern appeal making this a coffe table book that you will more than once peruse. It is a gem, a truly splendid thing to own.