From Library Journal
This three-volume series is published in conjunction with photographic exhibitions documenting the impact of immigration on American culture. Over the course of four years three nonprofit photography institutes collaborated to gather over 400 photographic images by 88 artists, a project involving hundreds of loan arrangements. The exhibitions are currently circulating among the three organizing museums and then will tour the nation through 1997. The hopes, fears, conflicts, and complexities of the immigrant experience in America?so dramatically revealed by the camera?distinguish this series. Reframing America showcases the works of seven European emigre photographers, from 1923 to 1947, whose innovative artistic techniques captured America's social unrest and racism combined with a passion for materialism and glamor. The work opens with a bittersweet memoir by noted writer Andrei Codrescu recalling his experience emigrating from Romania in 1966. In his introductory essay to Tracing Cultures, San Francisco's Friends of Photography Director Andy Grundberg states that this is "an exhibition of recent work by artists who employ photography to address issues of cross-cultural adjustment, displacement, and loss from the perspective of their own lives." Cultural conflicts between one's country of origin and this nation are strikingly expressed through photographs and photo-based installation art by 12 contemporary photographers. Two essayists explore the issues of multiculturalism, assimilation, and America's identity as a nonwhite society. A Nation of Strangers provides a historic overview of the past 155 years of U.S. immigration using photographs, cartoons, broadsides, and detailed annotations. Chinese miners during the California gold rush, Chinese laborers building the Central Pacific Railroad, patrols at the Mexican border, multitudes of new arrivals at Ellis and Angel islands, Cuban rafters, and Haitian refugees are portrayed, as well as the labor riots, poverty, and social upheavals that attended the various migrations. An excellent bibliography of English-language books published since 1983, a brief chronology, and two essays complete the volume. The three-part series has widespread appeal and is strongly recommended for general public library collections and all collections with a focus on photography or immigration.?Joan Levin, MLS, Chicago
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
