Louis Faurer [Hardcover]

Anne Wilkes Tucker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2003

The first major study of the work of Louis Faurer, known for his raw, melancholy and psychologically charged photographs of life on the street, and in particular for his evocative shots of 1940s and 1950s Times Square.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Tucker's book on fashion photographer Louis Faurer (1916-2001) deals mostly with his personal work, which focused largely on everyday scenes of New York City, rather than with his work for magazines such as Vogue and Flair. Until now, information on Faurer has been limited to periodical articles, text within more general works, and exhibition catalogs with more limited scope than is presented here. This new book, which accompanied a recent traveling exhibition, presents a much-needed overview of Faurer's life and work. The overall strength of this book is the analysis of mood in Faurer's pictures, which is supported by part of a Princeton dissertation that compares Faurer's photographs to film noir. Though Tucker, a curator and founder of the photography department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, discusses Faurer's relationships with other photographers and magazine editors, more material about the photographer's personal relationships would have been helpful. Still, the documentation provided in this book is exemplary and includes listings of Faurer exhibitions and photos that appeared in magazines. The illustrations are also excellent. Highly recommended for academic, larger public, and specialized art libraries. Eric Linderman, East Cleveland P.L., OH
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Anne Wilkes Tucker is an award-winning photography writer and lecturer, and is currently Curator at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She has written and contributed to many photographic books, including works on Ansel Adams.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Merrell Publishers; 1St Edition edition (January 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1858941652
• ISBN-13: 978-1858941653
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 11.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,419,185 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MEMORABLE KEEPSAKE VOLUME, April 4, 2002

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Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Louis Faurer (Hardcover)

Famed photographer Louis Faurer, who died last year at the age of 84, is remembered for his inimitable fashion photos and arresting street scenes. With camera at the ready he traversed New York City streets, searching for the moments he wished to preserve.

The child of a blue-collar Philadelphia neighborhood, Faurer taught himself photography. As a young man he went to New York City, where he became friends with and influenced Robert Frank. For almost two decades he devoted himself to work for top fashion mags, such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. Hollywood beckoned, and he served for a time as set photographer.

Faurer's skill as a portrait artist is manifestly apparent in his study of Walter Winchell, and Andy Warhol star Viva. Nonetheless, the New York street scenes are his most lasting legacy.

An award-winning writer and lecturer, Anne Wilkes Tucker has assembled a memorable keepsake volume for those who appreciate the art of photography.

- Gail Cooke

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Seeing Through the Eyes of God's Lonely Man, December 12, 2002

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Interplanetary Funksmanship "Swift lippin', e... (Vanilla Suburbs, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Louis Faurer (Hardcover)

Recently, I visited the Art Institute of Chicago to catch a two-room show by Robert Frank, which feautures classic images from his seminal work "The Americans," along with more recent fare from the 1970s through the 1990s. Also on the bill was the main showing -- a retrospective of prints by the recently deceased Louis Faurer, of whom I had only passing knowledge -- which was sponsored by Robert Frank's foundation named in honour of his daughter, Andrea. Fortunately for me, I bit the hook baited with the Frank photographs (which were beautiful to see in person for the first time) and finally got acquainted with Faurer's work.

Lou Faurer was a fashion photographer from the late 1940s through the early 1970s for such magazines as Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, but his passion was photographing Times Square in Manhattan at night. What immediately struck me about his photographs was how Faurer took the blaring and glaring crossroads in the city that never sleeps, and extracted from them utter solitude and psychic desolation. An aging woman shields herself with an umbrella from the blinding fury of incandescent lights flickering, despite the dry pavements; A family up from the farmland poses for a portrait which places their quiet dignity in the foreground against the marquees of movie theatres; a man stands along the kerb both awestruck and intimidated, in a shot which must have later been the genesis of Robert deNiro's defining role of Travis Bickle, the loner cabbie who pads up and down Broadway in total anonymity.

There is plenty of fare available to the keen eye of the viewer who wants something off the beaten path, that's yet set on one of the most beaten paths in the world's travelogues.

Faurer was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants and grew up in Philadelphia. It was here that he began his explorations as an amateur street photographer. During World War II, he took a photographic course from the Army, and was a civilian photographer for the War Department. After the Allied victory ended the war, Faurer began working in the fashion industry. It was around this time that his friendship with newly arrived Swiss-Jewish emigre Robert Frank began, as both worked as fashion photogs, while Faurer spent much of his time sweating away in Frank's darkroom. In the 1950s, their career paths diverged, with Frank following in the steps of Walker Evans as a straight documentarian, leaving Faurer to the fashion set. Yet, the two remained friends, despite Faurer's angry demeanour. One friend described friendship with Faurer as "high maintenance."

Faurer was exacting in capturing the exact tonal range and precise contrast needed to convey the feel of New York at night. Most of his early work is printed by himself, and while technically beautiful, it is refreshing to see that Faurer was not a perfectionist -- on many of his prints he left scratches, eyelash hairs and dust spots from negatives unretouched, whereas most other exhibiting photographers would have sweated bullets in spot-toning them out of existence. Strangely, it works, giving the viewer the "you are there" feeling of being present at the creation.

Also introduced for the first time are many of Faurer's Kodachrome reversal transparencies from the same time period (taken with his Leica rangefinder, very patiently handheld at night to render acceptably sharp images at 40 ASA). The resultant C-type prints made from internegatives are very faithful to Kodachrome's trademark warm tonality, and give us an alternative take on 1940s/50s Times Square.

Despite his photography being selected by Edward Steichen for the "Family of Man" compendium, Faurer remained on the fringes of the gallery scene, never fully embraced by the art photography movement until the 1970s. In his own lifetime, Faurer exhibited mostly in group exhibitions, but had only about five solo shows. This current retrospective is a long overdue gathering of most of Faurer's important works, which was first held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, moved to San Diego, and is fittingly due at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in June 2003.

As for the printing of the book itself, it is first rate, and both the tones and the colours are extremely true to the originals. Tucker's introductory essay is an excellent biographical sketch of Faurer the man, and Lisa Hostetler categorises Faurer within the realm of "Film Noir" photographers of his time, though she doesn't give enough background on the New York tabloid crime photographers such as Weegee and Osmund Leviness who defined what would later become the genre.

Nonetheless, this book (and the exhibition from which it was drawn) finally establishes Faurer among the top tier of art photographers where he rightly belongs.

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning!, February 9, 2011

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micky marinelli (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Louis Faurer (Hardcover)

Simply stunning! Some shots are rather "odd" and yet so beautiful. Faurer seemed to know how to see beauty and art in every street corner. The photos are a collection of NYC scenes, from the workers or the players to the passerby, from the glamorous to the sad, from the elegant to the poor, then busy street corners or the desolate and squalid ones... I only wish he were better-known!