Paterson II [Hardcover]

George Tice (Author), A. D. Coleman (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2006

A 10th-generation native of New Jersey, renowned photographer George Tice began his thirty-year documentation of the vernacular architecture of his home state with Paterson in 1972, which formed part of his acclaimed one-man show at Metropolitan Museum of Art. His most iconic images from this exploration are White Castle, Route 1, Rahway, N.J., and Petit's Mobil Station, Cherry Hill, N.J. In Paterson II, Tice revisits his source of inspiration, adding scores of new images, and making an eloquent statement about time and change in a small Northeastern city. 77 quadratone photographs.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Besides his brilliant book on the Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Fields of Peace (1970), photographer Tice's best-known project is his black-and-white documentation of Paterson, New Jersey. In this sequel to Paterson (1972), a dozen images of the city contemporary to that book (whether they appeared in it isn't stated) constitute a visual preface to 81 pictures from 30 years later. The earlier photos also serve for assessing the future in light of the past. Comparing the old and the new, it seems that Paterson is still the down-at-heels former industrial center Tice found in the late 1960s, beautifully situated amid low mountains and around a powerful waterfall once used, as Paterson's original planners intended, to power textile mills and monumentally depicted by Tice, as are several weather-sculpted boulders in the principal public park. Unlike earlier, there are people and cars in the streets now, though their faces are notably non-Western European: new immigrants have brought new life. Art more concerned with the impressiveness of persistence than with immediately obvious beauty. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

George Tice has published more than a dozen photographic collections over the past forty years. A professor of photography and printing techniques at The New School in New York City, his work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Art Institute of Chicago, International Center of Photography, the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, the Columbus Museum of Art, and Bibliotheque Nationale, in Paris. He lives in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. A. D. Coleman is a distinguished writer of photographic history and criticism; his most recent collection is Available Light. He lives in Staten island, New York.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Quantuck Lane; First edition (November 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159372022X
• ISBN-13: 978-1593720223
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,427,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gritty city, November 10, 2007

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paterson II (Hardcover)

George Tice continues his visual exploration of New Jersey urban living with these ninety-nine photos. As with his previous books: Paterson and Urban Landscapes he still manages to see and take amazing photos of the ordinary and everday in his home state, though he did say in his Statement in the 1975 Urban Landscapes that he made five trips to Camden but found it too depressing! Luckily Paterson lives up to his expectations and there are several stunning street scenes here that I think are some of his best work.

'Market & Cianci Streets, September 2003' on page sixty-nine is typical I think. A corner shot with shops, apartments above, commercial signage, parked cars, street furniture and some people frozen at exposure time with shadows creating dimension and depth. A similar photo is 'Main & Market Streets, October 2000', both images are full of detail and texture and pull you into the frame.

Of the ninety-nine photos twelve are called Early Work 1967-1971 with the remainder from 2000 to 2005. There are three spreads of street scene shots, taken with a 35mm camera, with three stacked photos on each page, all the others are whole pages and taken with an 8&10 view camera which explains the rich detail.

I think it is worth commenting on the book's production because, in this case, it really is a plus for the images. The photos are printed in six hundred line screen which really is on the cutting edge of what is possible on a printing press. Most photo books in my collection vary between 175 and 250 but the publisher no doubt thought that to capture the detail in these photos it was worth the extra effort and this obviously required a better paper, too (200gsm Hello Silk). The end result, I feel, is not far short of looking at an original print.

George Tice's photos and the amazing production quality of Paterson II lift this book way above the ordinary and I think thanks should go to James Mairs, publisher of the Quantuck Lane Press for having the vision to produce such a beautiful book.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.