New York to Hollywood: The Photography of Karl Struss [Hardcover]

Barbara McCandless (Author), Bonnie Yochelson (Author), Richard Koszarski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1995

Karl Struss (1886-1981) was a master of both still and motion picture photography. A native of New York City, he first studied photography with Clarence White and soon mastered the tenets of Pictorialism. Alfred Stieglitz featured his work in a 1910 exhibition and a 1912 issue of Camera Work. Struss was also a pioneering commercial photographer, one of the first to produce photographs for magazine illustration.

After enlisting in the army during World War I, he decided not to return to New York but instead headed west, to Hollywood, where he began a new career in film, making movie stills and publicity portraits and then doing motion picture photography. His pictorial talents earned him the first Academy Award for cinematography for Sunrise (1927).

New York to Hollywood surveys this consummate artist's long career with the camera. John and Susan Edwards Harvith, who rediscovered Struss's pictorialist work in the 1970s and interviewed him at length in his later years, round out the portrait of both the man and the artist.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Struss (1886-1981) was that rara avis who mastered both still photography and cinematography. Best known for his stunning camera work on F.W. Murnau's Sunrise--for which he shared the first Academy Award for cinematography in 1927--Struss was a member of Photo-Secession, an organization co-founded by Alfred Stieglitz devoted to the promotion of photography as a fine art. While Koszarski discusses Struss' contributions to the cinema, the focus of this retrospective is the artist's earlier New York pictorial work; the book is handsomely illustrated with black and white images from Struss' oeuvre, as well as his striking 1910-17 experiments in color. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

Published in cooperation with the Amon Carter Museum. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 247 pages
• Publisher: Univ of New Mexico Pr; First Edition edition (July 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826316379
• ISBN-13: 978-0826316370
• Product Dimensions: 12.5 x 9.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,920,404 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Missing Master Pictorialist Found!, October 8, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: New York to Hollywood: The Photography of Karl Struss (Hardcover)

While I admire the "straight" photography of Adams, Weston, and the Farm Security Administration photographs of the 1930's. Now that I am older, I am drawn to the romantic, soft and somewhat dreamy photographs associated with "pictorialism." I found some examples in an old book by Paul L. Anderson. Anderson also mentions a "Struss Pictorial Lens." I would find examples of "pictorialism" at museum shows. Later I found a book entitled "Pictorialism in California" with wonderful photograhps. However, this book about Karl Struss is wonderful. Particularly his still photography prior to 1918. Struss' work with night and architectural scenes are wonderful! A revelation. He didn't "do" figures well. But any photographer interested in the history of photograhy will find a visual feast. The book is well produced and high quality images. This book explores an interesting person, who for various reasons, remains almost unknown today.