Since the first snapshots were taken in 1888, Americans have used simple, inexpensive cameras to record their life stories. In the process, they have left behind millions of snapshots that document the story of America. Now, for the first time, these personal photographs have been gathered together to tell the nation's history. From sod houses in South Dakota to the skyscrapers of New York City, these personal photographs form the first people's photo history of America. The snapshots capture nearly a century of American life-telling our story through our own eyes. The Wright Brothers, the World Wars, Woodstock. They are all here, creating a crazy quilt of steamships and biplanes, migrants and flappers, seal clubbers and suffragettes. This is who we were and who we are.
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This compilation of amateur snapshots reveals that photography in the U.S. has been a craze from its inception. George Eastman's creation of flexible film and the original Kodak box camera in 1888 gave birth to the ubiquitous snapshot. Since then, a steady progression of invention-from the one dollar Brownie in 1900, to 35mm film in the 1920s and color print film following WWII. The authors stop well short of the digital revolution (which they admit has introduced a different way of seeing), drawing to a close in 1972 with a perfect final image: the family snapshot that Apollo 16 astronaut Charles M. Duke, Jr. took on the moon. This tour of snapshot history lacks the scholarly perspectives of recent books such as 2007's The Art of the American Snapshot, taking a more populist approach and comparing snapshots to folk songs as repositories of everyday life. Commentaries on more than 350 images range from informative to obtrusive, but the images provide an irresistible blend of historical material and voyeuristic pleasures.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Ever since 1888 and the advent of George Eastman’s first Kodak, Americans have been avidly taking pictures to record their lives, creating an enormous, rarely tapped archive. Williams, Richard Cahan, and Nicholas Osborn spent 10 years looking at more than a million snapshots, ultimately choosing 350, each with a “unique ability to help tell the American story.” After tracking down the who, what, where, and when of each striking, amusing, or haunting image, the authors organized these everyday astonishments thematically and made every page spread a study in unexpected parallels and contrasts. Beginning with a lovely series taken from “a surrey with the fringe on top” and moving forward into the atomic age, they present scenes of now vanishing wilderness and rural life, people at work and play, and calamities ranging from an eviction to a flood, tornado, dust storm, Ku Klux Klan parade, and war. Assembled with an eye for vitality, irony, and revelation, this splendid American photo album vividly chronicles our progress and tragedies, ingenuity and spirit. --Donna Seaman
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent Addition To Your Photobook Collection,
This review is from: Who We Were: A Snapshot History of America (Hardcover)
As a collector of vintage snapshots, I am always looking for books that contain a variety of snapshot examples along with detailed descriptions and quality reproductions. This book makes the grade in that respect. The photo illustrations are very high quality and the author does a great job providing the right amount of detail about each of the snapshots in the captions. Well organized throughout. One of my favorite books on this subject. Highly recommended.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
TIME FRAME,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Who We Were: A Snapshot History of America (Hardcover)
Given the enormous number of black and white snapshots archived in family and institutional collections, the author has done an admirable job of selecting representative images of America in the twentieth century. When one considers that there was often a significant lapse in time between exposure and development, opening the drugstore envelope was often a pleasant surprise, similar to receiving a gift package. Digital photography with its instant feedback combined with time and date stamp eliminates the anticipation and prospect of discovery.
'Who We Were' reminds us of a time when instant gratification was non-existent, when each photo was a potential family keepsake. Since we will never live those times again, we are fortunate to have this collection as a reminder.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
