George Tice: Urban Landscapes (Hardcover)

~ George Tice (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Photographs that offer beauty in the commonplace, nostalgia in the mundane, and American universality in urban New Jersey.

The photographs of George Tice combine an appreciation of beauty with the grittiness of ordinary experience. Tice, the photographer/author of books like Hometowns: An American Pilgrimage, Fields of Peace, and the award-winning Paterson, has turned his camera many times to his native New Jersey. But these images of his home state, taken over the past thirty years, could be almost anywhere in America. They portray the movie theaters, shops, dwellings, and street scenes we have grown up with in cities large and small. Without the slightest effort to romanticize, Tice honors the commonplace with an extraordinary eye and a photographic excellence that is evocative to those of us who have experienced these settings. These pictures will stand the test of time as monuments to the American scene for future generations. 141 duotone photographs.

About the Author

George Tice's work has been widely exhibited, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is collected in major museums around the country. He lives in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.; illustrated edition edition (September 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393051994
• ISBN-13: 978-0393051995
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 11.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #350,104 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beauty in the Ordinary World, September 16, 2002

By	J. D. Ramsey (Morristown, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a culmination of Tice's work on landscapes in one of the most urbanized areas in the world, New Jersey, lying between two great metropolises of NYC and Philadelphia. He epitomizes the artist who is able to find meaning and emotional content in even the most mundane subject. Locations that many of us would pass each day (and I have passed a number of the sites photgraphed) without a further thought are subjects of insightful photographs that show us something about a subject we may not have considered without the artist's insight. It is a simple matter to record a beautiful scene; quite another to portray the essence of a subject in a photograph in a manner that conveys its intrinsic worth. Much of Tice's work is, of course, already held by some of the most important museums in the world, and are well known to those who follow fine art photography. See, for instance, Strand Theater (page 33), White Castle (page 35), Oak Tree (page 47), and, of course, Petit's Mobil Station (page 67 and book cover). But many of the photographs are not as well known, and may not be quite as accessible. They are, nonetheless, well worth the effort to understand and appreciate. They span photographs of blue collar hangouts that evoke an immediate feeling of familiarity (e.g. St. George's Diner - page 71; Main Street Rahway, page 36), to the cool beauty of the Newark Bay seen from the Pulaski Skyway (page 90). The diversity of the photographs is stunning, as is their reproduction in duotone. Highly recommended!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NJ commonplace, April 20, 2008

By	Robin Benson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I would have written this review some time ago if the publisher had been a bit more accurate with the book's title. I have the original 1975 edition and I always assumed this same titled edition was just a reprint until I noticed that it had 168 pages and the original had 112. So now I have most of photos in the original plus more photographed up to 1999 and nicely, this book is printed in 250 rather than the 150 screen of the first edition.

I've always preferred images of the man-made landscape with its visual vibrancy and George Tice has the eye to deliver. His street photos of commercial premises, signage and traffic in the gritty cities and towns of New Jersey (his birth State) provide plenty of eye-grabbing work throughout the book. For example: on pages 126 and 127 there are two streets in Atlantic and Jersey cities which are just stunning, the Jersey City one always reminds me of Walker Evans work in Reedsville, West Virginia in June 1935.

In the 1975 edition Tice says that 'Urban Landscapes' is an extension of his 1972 'Patterson' book. I haven't seen the original but I recently bought 'Patterson II', published in 2006 with photos taken from 2000 onwards and the contents are in the same style as his previous work. Incidentally, I think, 'Patterson II' an important book for a technical reason: the black and white photos are printed in six hundred screen which really is on the cutting edge of graphic reproduction and Tice's pin-sharp, detail saturated photos are the ideal subject for such quality printing. I just wonder if I had one of his prints and placed it next to the same printed photo in the book would the difference be immediately apparent?

I think 'Urban Landscapes' will become one of my favorite books and with Patterson II it's clear that George Tice has, over several decades, continued to take remarkable photos of American commonplace.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

5.0 out of 5 stars Tice - Urban Labdscapes, April 4, 2009

By	Robert C. Hogan - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Its great to this central book in Tice's career reissued, and with splendid photo reproductions. Some of his very best work here.