Customer Reviews

Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!