Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West [Hardcover]

Eva Respini (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 20, 2009

Into the Sunset examines how photography has pictured, established and transformed the idea of the American West, from 1850 to the present. The development of photography coincided with the exploration and settlement of the West, and this simultaneous growth resulted in a complex relationship that has shaped the perception of that region's physical and social landscape to this day. Published to accompany a major exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Into the Sunset charts changing myths and cultural attitudes about the West through photographs dating from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. An expansive and dynamic survey, it brings together photographers as diverse as Carleton E. Watkins and Stephen Shore, Darius Kinsey and Dorothea Lange, Robert Frank and Cindy Sherman, an unknown daguerreotypist and Richard Prince. More than 120 works are organized thematically to highlight the artists' differing views of the West's land and people.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: The Museum of Modern Art, New York (February 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870707493
• ISBN-13: 978-0870707490
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 9.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #289,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars This Makes You Think, June 27, 2010

By 

Theseus "theseus" (US of A) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West (Hardcover)

An intelligent, beautiful, confounding, and wide-ranging book from MoMA.

The basic premise here is that "the development of photography coincided with the exploration and settlement of the American West, and since the opening of the frontier, the medium has shaped perceptions of the West's physical and social landscape."

Organized into two long chapters: "Land" and "People," the sequencing of these images by Eva Respini is brilliant. This image mirrors that one. These images amplify and expand those images. This image calls into question the entire way of seeing the stuff in that image. The way these photographs progress through the book borders on being a narrative. The highest compliment I can pay is that the order of the images in play here is reminiscent of Walker Evans' first book with MoMA (Walker Evans: American Photographs) back in 1938.

As you might expect, you get everything from anonymous early portraits through heavy-hitters like Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and William Henry Jackson to a large number of images from late twentieth century photographers. Some of my personal favorites contribute: Friedlander, Cindy Sherman, Garry Winogrand, Richard Misrach, Bill Owens. And there are brilliant photographs by a bunch of people who are new to me.

Square hardback: cloth over board with blind-stamped and dark grey details, in dustjacket, sewn binding, on nice stock. 168 pp. 2.75 pounds. With index, bibliography, list of plates, and a terrific illustrated essay by Respini.

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific art book!, June 18, 2009

By 

S. Maloney (NY, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West (Hardcover)

Great art book of MOMA exhibition of the same name. If you love photography--particularly photography of the American West--along with good curatorial notes, then this book is for you!