THE PHOTOGRAPH IN CONTEMPORARY ART by dint of CHARLOTTE COTTON LONDON: THAMES & HUDSON 2004 222 PP/$ 1695 (SB) Although the ambition of this work is "not to create a checklist of all the photographers who merit a mention in a discussion forward contemporary art.

THE PHOTOGRAPH IN CONTEMPORARY ART

by dint of CHARLOTTE COTTON

LONDON: THAMES & HUDSON 2004 222 PP/$ 1695 (SB)

Although the ambition of this work is "not to create a checklist of all the photographers who merit a mention in a discussion forward contemporary art, but to give a feeling of the spectrum of motivations and expressions that generally exist in the field," it essentially lists a great number of contemporary practitioners whose primary goal is to be part of the art market. From her former experience curating photography at the Victoria and Albert museum to her circulating job as program director at the Photographers' Gallery in London, the author has established an index of photographers whose nationalities are predominantly American, English, and German. The stay of the world is alone illustrated by a few names, and most numerous photographers who are quite quick in emergencies on the national or international show but who were unfortunate enough to be born in France, Italy, or Spain are consciously ignored. With as it was reservations about content, it must be added that the analytical approach that a real scrutinize would necessitate is also dangerously missing, simply to be replaced by descriptions of the artists' works, and enough repetitions of the word "conceptual."

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In a 13-page introduction the author domains her typology in the history of ("art") photography with the examples of William Eggleston ("the photographers' photographer" [!]) Stephen Shore, and the Bechers ("rephrasing vernacular photography" [ with an 8"X10" view-camera and black and white film!]). This remarkably short list that is abruptly interrupted by means of the intrusion of a paragraph in succession Seydou Keita and David Goldblatt. Then in a rather surprising fashion, the introduction conclusions with a paragraph on Ralph Eugene Meatyard, a stylistic approach that will be coherently confirmed on the way the book ends

In order to avoid an alphabetical list of the names of authors that she must have collisioned between Cromwell road and Great Newport road Cotton structured her book in seven chapters: "If This Art" (staged photography), "Once relating to a Time" (tableaux vivants, single-image narratives), "Deadpan" ("cool detached, and keenly sharp." "Deadpan" is another tonic word in Ms Cotton's vocabulary after "conceptual"), "Something and Nothing" (photographs of "non-human things" [!] "Intimate Life," "Moment in History" ("anti-reportage stance"), and "Revived and Remade" (postmodern and anti-modernist).

The part ends short without a conclusion yet with an index. The latter may rapidly establish itself as the best asset of this volume as it allows the user to quickly navigate the 211 pages of subject and illustrations, and effectively reach the descriptive contented attached to every name. In conclusion this paperback will reveal itself an ideal, yet incomplete companion to the catalogs listing photo galleries, published for of the like kind fine art photography shows (gallery/art market fairs) as AIPAD, Paris Photo, and their now numerous likes, that draw large populaces of potential fortunate buyers, real amateurs, and image consumers

After reading Frank O'Hara's volume of poems titled Lunch metrical compositions Gus Powell who worked in a, midtown Manhattan office, took to the way with his 35 mm camera loaded with color film.

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