Photospeak : A Guide to the Ideas, Movements, and Techniques of Photography, 1839 to the Present [Hardcover]

Gilles Mora (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1998

A worthy companion to Abbeville's two very successful reference volumes -- ArtSpeak: A Contemporary Guide to Ideas, Movements, and Buzzwords and ArtSpoke: A Modern Guide to Ideas, Movements, and Buzzwords, 1848-1944 -- PhotoSpeak is an informative, user-friendly resource. The complexities of photographic techniques, from the calotype to digital imaging and beyond, are explained in clear, straightforward language. The international groups and movements of photography are elucidated in the same effective who-when-where-what format that has made ArtSpeak and ArtSpoke so useful. And the aesthetic concepts and critical language used to explain (and often obscure) photography over the last century and a half are demystified in illuminating, enjoyable prose. An illustrated time line and a chart of all the movements complement the text and the original selection of images.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book is an excellent and educational reference guide for anyone working or interested in photography. . . . Anything and everything is included here. . . . Whether one wants to look up a specific thing or just flip through, this book is sure to provide a fascinating and educational experience. -- Photo Market

This is a very useful desktop reference that should be on everybody's list . . . filled with valuable information . . . beautifully packaged with easy to read type, good illustrations, and a handsome cover. -- The Picture Professional, Issue 2, 1998

Product Details

• Hardcover: 215 pages
• Publisher: Abbeville Press (February 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789203707
• ISBN-13: 978-0789203700
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #840,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars INTERESTING AND INVALUABLE, August 13, 2001

By 

MOVIE MAVEN (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Photospeak : A Guide to the Ideas, Movements, and Techniques of Photography, 1839 to the Present (Hardcover)

The author, Gilles Mora, a former editor of "Cahiers de Photographie" called his book a "guide." I think it is more of an encyclopedia. Divided, as it is, into the categories of "Who, When, Where & What," the reader can easily find the principal photographers from 1839 til today ("Who"), the moment of greatest significance for a particular style or method of photography ("When"), the cities, countries and continents in which a movement was centered ("Where") and the nature and origins of the style or technique (What").

For example, we learn that "collage" which had long been used in decorative arts, was actually first used in fine art when Picasso pasted oilcloth onto his 1912 painting "Still Life With Chair Caning." We learn a useful, simple definition of collage and how some modernist painters/photographers have used it including David Hockney and Robert Frank in the 1980's. We learn that in 1854, a man named Andre-Adolphe-Eugene Disderi patented something called a "carte-de-visite" which is a portrait glued to a piece of cardboard the size of a traditional visiting card....like the ones forever being left on hallway trays in the novels of Edith Wharton and Henry James.

There also terms and phrases we might have heard but, perhaps, did not understand fully like "contact sheet" or "daguerreotype," "The New York School" or "Photojournalism" and "Camera Obscura" to name just a few.

The book is crammed full of wonderful bits and pieces of information, interestingly written and invaluable for the photographer, the photography collector or the hobbyist. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good basic reference, December 24, 2002

By A Customer

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This review is from: Photospeak: A Guide to the Ideas, Movements, and Techniques of Photography, 1839 to the Present (Paperback)

It is debatable whether the "expert" mentioned in the introduction will find it useful in finding "specific facts". It is really for the novice and casual user who does not need technical or extensive discussions. The alphabetical arrangement puts it in the class of a simple dictionary or one volumn cyclopedia. It is arranged well and well indexed unfortunately there is no bibliography to guide the reader to more in depth study--since Mr. Mora is apparantly French this might not be helpful to an American audience. It might also explain why his timeline erroneously places the end of the American Civil war as 1864---no, April 9, 1865. To be fair many American students probably don't know that today. It is puzzling that he mentions Einstein's Theory of Relativity in 1905 but not the Photoelectric Effect Theory which descibes the phenomenon that makes a Light Meter possible. Oh well. This is a good book for a quick, simple reference and does well within its size limitations. His european perspective is worth having the book, though the serious student will need to look elsewhere for thorough dicussion of the topics. I don't regret buying it and would recomed it for its purpose.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good reference book for the serious amateur and amateur., April 25, 2010

By 

Vic Setterholm (Silicon Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Photospeak: A Guide to the Ideas, Movements, and Techniques of Photography, 1839 to the Present (Paperback)

This book was required for a photography class I attended. I kept the book because it is informative on the basic and advanced level. Whenever I do not understand a photographic term, I go to this reference.