Customer Reviews

Photography's Antiquarian Avant-Garde: The New Wave in Old Processes

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lyle's focus on the recent upsurge of interest in historic and alternative printing techniques in photography focuses on a fascinating area of work in contemporary art, but is flawed by the writer's tendency to use obfuscating language, deployed in a tone that suggests you're "in the loop" if you get it and not if you don't. The subject awaits its definitive treatment but this volume is useful in the meantime.

I agree with the previous poster that the definitive book on this subject has yet to be written. The printing is first-rate, so the images are gorgeously presented, although I wish some of them were larger.
The down side is that the text does not go into nearly enough depth on the subject. The introductory essay is just that, a good introduction to the topic, but each chapter (chapters are each devoted to an alternative process) has a short essay which only devotes a paragraph or two to each artist, followed by pages and pages of images which left me wanting to know more.
The essay by Chuck Close and the interview with Sally Mann are fascinating, but only serve to illustrate the potential this subject has to offer, but the book doesn't quite live up to.
Four stars on the strength of the images.

Beautifuly constructed book with alot of really nice images. Certainly anyone could appreciate this book. My only complaint is that in the opening/introductory chapters, there is alot of unused space and few images until you get past that.