Originally published in 1973, this survey of The Museum of Modern Art's photography collection explores the evolution of the photographic medium using specific examples to illustrate its development. In concise analyses, John Szarkowski investigates the aesthetic, formal, social and historical issues of 100 photographs selected from "the Modern's" collections. This archive of pictures contains a vast range of works from familiar and not-so-familiar photographers. Included are some the of most recognizable pictures of the past 150 years by acknowledged masters of their field such as Adamson, Cameron, Stieglitz, Weston, Cartier-Bresson, Cunningham, Arbus and Frank.
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
John Szarkowski is director emeritus of the Department of Photography, the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He is the author of The Photographer's Eye, Photography Until Now, Irving Penn, and many other works on photography.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
This book fills the reader with emotion and knowledge about photography and photographs. I will never look at a photograph the same way after having read it. The language is beautiful and inspiring and photographs wonderfully reproduced. Anyone who loves the subject or art in general will find excitement on every page. NOW I can begin to know which photographers to study first and how to approach an enormous subject.
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Although this book has much less female nudity than many photographic books, there are two such pages in the book. If this type of representation is offensive to you, either skip this book or avoid those pages.
This book has modest purposes. "This is a picture book, and its first purpose is to provide the material for simple delectation." Beyond that, it is "a visual interim report [as of 1973] on the results of collecting photographs at The Museum of Modern Art." These purposes are magnificently fulfilled, and your eyes and mind will be filled with many useful new perspectives and thoughts as a result of your delectations here. Your life will be expanded by seeing much more, both in photographs and in life, as a result.
Mr. Szarkowski, head of the photography collection at MOMA, points at that photography "has received little serious study." As a result, a language and analytical framework for considering photography are not yet developed. To overcome that limitation. Mr. Szarkowski has provided a number of perspectives in the one-page essays that accompany each page of photography. These perspectives include the utilitarian purpose of the image, the style of the photographer, the technology of the methods used, and the significance of the subjects or subject. He also draws your attention to detail or information that expand your knowledge. It is like having the best docent's photography tour of your life, as you go through the images.
These essays are modestly described as simply "an attempt to describe photography from a somewhat more liberal and exploratory perspective." Well, they are much more than that. They are like turning the light on to see the photographs for the first time, unless you are a talented photographer already.
In creating this book, a great decision was made to limit each photographer to one page of work. In this way, you get to see more types of images and styles. I think this added greatly to the knowledge and enjoyment that can be gained from this wonderful book. A great benefit of this approach was to allow selecting photographs that would reproduce well in this page size format. I heartily approve of that approach!
In the book you will find portraits, sketches for painters, ways of recording far away places, Civil War reporting, aerial reconnaisance, methods of encouraging connections, insights into the physics of life, and efforts to be a successor to painting. As the author says, "Photography has remained . . . radical, instructive, disruptive, influential, problematic, and [an] astonishing phenomenon of the modern epoch."
Here are my favorite images:
D.O. Hill and W.B. Johnston, David Octavius Hill, Celotype, c. 1845
Baron Isadore Taylor, Nadar, Woodbury type, 1872
Madonna with Children, Julia Margaret Cameron, Albumen print, c. 1866
Sugar Bowl with Rowboat, Wisconsin Dells, Henry Hamilton Bennett, 1911
Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, Paris, Jacques Henri Lartigue
Georgia Engelhard, Alfred Stieglitz, 1921
Torso of Neil, Edward Weston, 1925
Babe Ruth, Nikolas Muray, c. 1927
James Joyce, Berenice Abbott, 1928
Wes Fesler Kicking a Football, Dr. Harold E. Edgerton, c. 1935
A Boy with a Straw Hat with Flag Waiting to March in a Pro-War Parade, New York City, Diane Arbus, 1967
The Museum of Modern Art added a photograph to its collection as only the 23rd object acquired in April 1930. From the beginning, the museum has been committed to photography and was the first museum to establish its own independent department of photography. Invariably, there are copious hangings from the collection available for viewing whenever you visit MOMA. The museum should be proud of creating and now reproducing an improved version of this wonderful set of selections from its extensive collection. Perhaps it is time to create a larger version of this book that is more representative of the whole collection.
After you finish expanding your vision through these marvelous essays and photographs, I urge you to do some photography of your own to express yourself. You will appreciate what you see even more when you create your own images. A good way to begin is to find a subject that is covered in this book and create your own version of that subject. In that way, you can get "inside of the camera" with the photographer. After your photographs can be seen, compare them with the book. Go back and try again. Repeat the process . . . until you have captured the image you were seeking. Like truth, images can be fleeting and transparent.
See more and be more through your improved vision!
19 of 23 people found the following review helpful
John Szarkowski has selected 100 worthwhile images and has crafted exceptionally well written commentary about each image. The value of the collection far exceeds the sum of the parts. The book is an education about photography. It doesn't matter how much you like an image or agree with the commentary because by seeing the image and reading the commentary you will learn about photography and about life.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Short essays about images
It is tough to write about photography, but each of these short one-page essays is a gem. As you open the book there is an essay on the left page and a photograph on the right.
Published on April 9, 2010 by Marc N. Baskin
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Photophile's MUST HAVE
I got an undergrad degree in Photography and this is the best book I was ever required to read. I LOVE THIS BOOK!
If you are serious about photography, get this book. Read more
If you are serious about photography, get this book. Read more
Published on November 26, 2008 by Jessica S. Gamble
5.0 out of 5 stars
Learning to Look at Photographs
When John Szarkowski recently passed away at the age of 81, the world lost one of photography's most important figures. Read more
Published on July 23, 2007 by Mark Hillringhouse
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Collection, New Yorker style
A Collection, New Yorker style
It is difficult to make a collection of photographs by different people and not make it haphazard, unless there is an underlying theme. Read more
Published on January 29, 2002 by Kenichiro Aoki
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
