Customer Reviews

Stieglitz: Camera Work (25th Anniversary Special Edtn)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Stieglitz - Camera Work is an extract of the photographs that appeared in the Camera Work magazine that Stieglitz created and edited. The photographs chart the history and change in photographic styles from pictorialist to the straight photography of Paul Strand. As such it is a historical document to the changing style of the medium. However, more than that it shows many accomplished photographers and their work that is truly refreshing even by today's standards. The size of the book is quite nice, portable but also large enough that it will take time to work through it all and enjoy the pictures. The essay on Stieglitz and his motivations and involvement in the photographic scene of his day and his importance even then is also quite interesting. He was (and is) a real giant of the photographic world. I "only" gave 4 stars because the book is not available in hard cover, and there is a big 25 year anniversary image on the book spine. I don't much like advertising things like that on my bookshelf, and as the book was issued in 2008 (and Taschen's 25th anniversary was in 2005 or 2007) I don't quite get why they are branding this book like that. Still, a sterling effort on their part. Print reproduction quality is excellent.
For who is this book? For photographic artists, people interested in photographic history, as well as photographers who are looking to the past for a way to refresh and invigorate their photography.

I truly am amazed at some of the nitpicking on this wonderful book. Add to that the truly amazing price. This is not a cheaply produced book. All the pages are quality paper capable of coming very close to presenting the true tonality of these works. In addition, the reproductions themselves are true to the toning of the originals. Black and white photography is not just blacks and whites, and this book gets you very close to the feel of the originals.
If you have any interest in the history of photography and one of the earliest proponents of photography as art you just shouldn't pass up this book.

Well this book is a steal at the price. It contains all the work published in Stieglitz's Camera Work magazine. This was the outlet for the Pictoralist school of photography who attempted to duplicate the work of painters.

You can quickly understand why the f/64 Group led by Ansel Adams, Weston and Cunningham were revolting against this style. The works are gloomy, brown, soft and derivative of the gloomy soft Victorian style of the painters of the time. There are still many gems included among the chaff and this book should be on your shelf if you are a photographer.

Taschen is publishing more of this type of catalogs of a particular photographer or style and are well worth looking at.

As expected, Taschen Publishing has done a wonderful job of filling in some of the many information gaps in the history of photography. Any serious collector of photography has heard of the most famous of the early American Photography Journals--"Camera Work" named after the photographers who were at that time usually referred to as "camera workers."
This nearly three pound, 552 page beautifully printed collection of photographs is a "must have" book for the true collector or student of photography, but I'm afraid much of the general public will look at the images and wonder what the big deal was with this almost legendary photography magazine. I've often heard "Camera Work" referred to but this is the first time I was able to see all the photographs that were included in the 50 issues and one special issue that were published over a 14 year period from 1903 to 1917.
By the time Stieglitz decided to cease publication, the magazine had morphed into more of an art journal featuring modern art with some issues not including any photographs. Never the less "Camera Work" made a very important contribution to the development of American Photography. While this book doesn't include any of the journal's articles or essays or reproductions of the artwork that filled it's last editions, it did introduce the world to American photographers of the "Pictorialist School" and the work of the "Photo-Secessionist Movement." It helped promote photography as an independent art form. However, the "Pictorialist School" of photography was so limited and stylized that during the fourteen years he edited, published and financed "Camera Work" even Stieglitz became bored with the style while he moved into Modernism. His personal collection of his photographer friend's work included many original prints by one of his chief competitors of the era, F. Holland Day, and after a fire in Day's Boston Studio, Stieglitz had the only prints of some of Day's best work. "In 1933, he gave his collection of over 600 photographs by members of the Photo-Secessionists and other pictorial photographers to the Metropolitan Museum of New York. By this time he had come to see little value in this style of photography, a style he had almost single-handedly nurtured in America, and now wanted to be rid of it."
The book includes an excellent introductory essay by Pam Roberts about Alfred Stieglitz and his two photography journals. His earlier magazine was "Camera Notes." The book contains 559 beautifully reproduced copies of Photogravure, Half tones and even a few of the earliest examples of Tricolor photographic images. Master photographer "Walker Evans could only remember one Paul Strand image from the 559 reproductions. Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter recalled Strand, Stieglitz and Steichen, but the mass of pictorial work seemed to them from another era, as indeed it was."
The book contains many "firsts" or near-firsts in photography history. There are lots of nudes, my favorites by far, powerful pictures of the Industrial Revolution, early action and sports subjects, and lots of portraits of groups and individuals. Some famous personages are shown, but there are also lots of average people who helped people like Clarence H. White by getting up before dawn in order to pose for him at exactly the moment the light and weather was perfect for White's desired image. They also had to devote time to making costumes and rehearsing the desired poses before the day of the actual shoot. I didn't care for all of the reproductions, but I could at least appreciate why they were there. Since art is in the eye of the beholder, there will be pleasing images for any viewer contained in this one-volume encyclopedia of early American photography. One of the few questions I had after reading the book was if this book is a smaller sized version of the original journal. The book is 7.7 inches by 5.6 inches, but that does not seem to be the same format ratio as the photographs of a couple of the actual publications pictured across from the book's table of contents. That's not enough to make me not appreciate the contribution Taschen has made to photography by republishing all the original pictures included in the pioneering work at a really inexpensive price.

This book is a delightful look into the past of Photography and through what better lens than the publications of Alred Stieglitz. It so sell shows you the styles and aspirations of the photograher of the early 20th century and the expectations of the photographers clients during that eara.

It also reminded me of the days before digital when I shot 8" x 10" and 4 x 5" formats that the making of a really good photograph is in part the time of setting up and having time to really think out the shot.

The compositions and posing of the portrait subjects really have improved my ability to see and think the making of my photographs.

The book is a very good investment and for the price it is a steal.

Darryl

To all those who have wondered, like me, what it was like to page through Stieglitz's "Camera Work" this is a great oppotunity. This thick tome contains all the images from the highly reguarded publication for a very low price. However, as I often find to be the case with Taschen books, this volume lack the hard cover and size needed to convey the power of these images. While I can understand that by allowing "Camera Work" to be owned for the price of lunch brings luxury to anyone. I feel that an additional larger volume would immortalize a work that, before now, could only be viewed in its entirety by a select few.

This book is beautifully produced, just be aware of the size. There are almost too many pages that make opening the book fully difficult but if you are a fan of Stieglitz, this is the reference book to own. The images are outstanding.

I recommend this book to anybody interesting in the history of photography. Camera work was a great publication of the lates artist first of the pictorialism movement and later the straight photography. You can see the change as it goes from the early issues to the latest issues

This is a fabulous work, showing the earliest days of Alfred Stieglitz and the icons of photography's beginnings as an art form to be collected and admired. Taschen has done a wonderful job of putting the entire collection out in this format.

Excellent opportunity to get a chance to read this wonderful collection of articles from one of the most influential photography journals ever published.