Picturing Utopia: Bertha Shambaugh and the Amana Photographers (Bur Oak Book) [Paperback]

Abigail Foerstner (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bur Oak Book | Publication Date: September 1, 2005

More than a hundred years ago, Bertha Shambaugh set out to photograph the Amana Colonies, the utopian religious community twenty miles northwest of Iowa City. Following her example, several Amana members ignored their community's prohibition against photography and took up cameras to record the people and events around them. Picturing Utopia celebrates their artistic vision and offers a rare glimpse into a 19th-century religious utopia, providing an unbroken photographic record beginning with Shambaugh's work in the 1890s and continuing through the Colonies' transition to mainstream American life with the Great Change in 1932. Abigail Foerstner, whose great uncle was one of the Amana photographers included in this book, brings together this stunning collection of photographs along with the stories of the photographers who took them. Together the pictures and text fill in an untold chapter in American photographic history and provide an insider's view of life in Amana.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Foerstner recounts the story of the photographers of the Amana colonies, a utopian religious community in Iowa, during the 1890s and the early years of the twentieth century. In particular, she celebrates the inspirational career of Bertha Shambaugh, one of the earliest social documentary photographers and the first outsider to photograph the colonies. Other photographers represented include Christian Herrmann, Paul Kellenberger, Rudolph Kellenberger, F. William Miller, William F. Noe, Friedrich Oehl, Jacob and Henrietta Selzer, Peter Stuck, and the author's great-uncle William Foerstner. The photographs' subject matter is the stuff of ordinary life: children and adults at work and play, seasonal celebrations, the interiors of old Amana churches, empty schoolhouse benches. Intimate and warm, the text evokes in style and tone the elegiac quality of the photographs. The mood of the whole book is best captured by the image of a pair of oval-shaped, dark-rimmed glasses resting on an open Bible and illuminated by a shaft of light from above. This is a rare glimpse of a nineteenth-century utopian religious society, which is to say a unique document of a vanished way of life. June Sawyers --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Like a time machine, the photographs in Picturing Utopia carry us back to a wondrous Iowa experiment in creating a kinder, more spiritual way of life. I recommend this book to all who are overwhelmed by the complexities of modern-day living.”--Jon Anderson, Chicago Tribune

“The photographs' subject matter is the stuff of ordinary life: children and adults at work and play, seasonal celebrations, the interiors of old Amana churches, empty schoolhouse benches. Intimate and warm, the text evokes in style and tone the elegiac quality of the photographs. . . . This is a rare glimpse of a 19th-century utopian religious society, which is to say a unique document of a vanished way of life.”--Booklist

“Historians of the Amana Colonies have long been grateful that the leadership of Amana's religious communal society did not strictly enforce its prohibition of photography: the images are essential resources that document our community's past. With its wonderfully rich collection of newly discovered images, Picturing Utopia not only adds to our knowledge of the Amana Colonies' history but also gives us a greater appreciation for the artistic expression of the photographers.”--Lanny Haldy, executive director, Amana Heritage Society

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Product Details

• Paperback: 166 pages
• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877459584
• ISBN-13: 978-0877459583
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 8.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 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: #3,203,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Photographs of Communal Amana, Ia., December 20, 2002

By 

A. S. Blake Jr. (Cumming, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Picturing Utopia: Bertha Shambaugh and the Amana Photographers (Hardcover)

This is a book any one can enjoy. It is loaded with wonderful black and white photographs of a unique way of life in Iowa in the early 20th century. These are beautifully detailed photos reprinted from old glass plate negatives that you will pour over and come back to time and again. Schambaugh was a talented artist and a pioneer in early photography.
Foerstner has not only presented us with a book of unique photos, but has included a well-written documentary of Shambaugh and the life of photographers of her day. I think readers will also enjoy her insight into the Amana Colonies and their history. Most people only know the Amanas as a tourist mecca of shops and confuse them with the Amish. Just as Shambaugh was allowed a unique opportunity to enter and share an almost closed society - now readers can also share in the lives of a group of people that leave you reevaluating your life.