American Images: Photography 1945-1980 - Softcover

This anthology resulted from a British exhibition that offered an ``expose of the development of post-war American culture as witnessed through the eye of the camera lens.'' It shows more than 300 photographs by some 80 photographers, each of whom is placed within the decade of his or her greatest impact. The reproductions are highly satisfactory in tone, although some large prints have suffered from the reductions here. The short biographies give too little about the artist's life, and too much critical babble. Four critics with British connections attempt to characterize the social, political, and cultural philosophies and events that gave rise to changes in photographic style and subject matter in each decade. The arrangement by decade is effective, revealing what appears to be a rapid evolution from elegant and formal Weston, insightful Smith, humorous Erwitt, to banal Cohen and intentionally shocking Krims. Exceptions abound, however; this is the risk one takes when examining aesthetic trends from a close perspective. Kathleen Collins, Library of Congress
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this ambitious project, British curator and critic Turner presents what he calls an "investigation" of American art photography since World War II. Contributions from four critics and historians (including Lewis Baltz) explore the relevance of humanism in photography and the influence of the '50s publication of The Americans and the journal Aperture while providing an in-depth look at the '70s. The essays are opinionated and abrasive, often overlapping and sometimes contradicting each other, but the four different approaches give the book vitality. Of the 80 photographers represented here, almost half are products of the '70s; included are major and minor photographers such as Ansel Adams, Helen Levitt, Minor White, Gary Winogrand, Jerry Uelsmann, Robert Adams and William Eggleston, as well as iconoclasts Les Krims and Clarence John Laughlin. The one inexplicable omission is of the influential Walker Evans. November
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.