PHOTOGRAPHY SPEAKS / 150 PHOTOGRAPHERS onward THEIR ART EDITED on BROOKS JOHNSON just discovered YORK: APETURE.

PHOTOGRAPHY SPEAKS / 150 PHOTOGRAPHERS onward THEIR ART

EDITED on BROOKS JOHNSON

just discovered YORK: APETURE, 2004/320 PP./ $2995 (SB)

More than just a compilation of clauses by numerous important photographers about their art and craft, this part reflects the thoughtful choices and the careful selection of passages by one man, Brooks Johnson the curator of photography for through the whole extent of 25 years at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk (VA). The author was instrumental in the establishment of a department of photography at the museum in 1978 The deepness of his dedication to the field of photography has been exemplified from his commitment to quality scholarly research, backed by way of a remarkable taste for photographs. single in kind of the shows that he had curated at the Chrysler museum was the first individual I had ever seen in this fatherland when I first visited a certain quantity of sixteen years ago. It struck me through its cope, the quality of the exhibited pieces, and the refined understanding of the work that was uttered on the walls of the museum. I definitely did not wait for to encounter such an interesting collection of photographs in Norfolk. The museum and its staff has made its way forward my personal list of the fine small and refined jewels of the American art representation (the Albright-Knox in Buffalo is another one)

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Photography Speaks / 150 Photographers onward Their Art proposes a revised and expanded continuation of the first Photography Speaks published in 1989 comprising a selection of passages by 69 photographers. At the time Beaumont Newhall and John Szarkowski praised it. It was followed by dint of a second already revised and expanded edition in 1995 Photography Speaks II. Seven more photographers had joined the ranks. Aperture then was lending its book-publishing know-how, and experience in distribution. The in every one's mouth publication is another joint luck of the Chrysler museum and Aperture. It benefits from runlets Johnson's now long and shrewd experience as a curator and an author of many catalogues (Andre Kertesz and Still recent After All These Years in 1982 19th centenary French Photography in 1987, Jun Shiroaka in 1988 Burk Uzzle in 1992 James Abbe in 2000 among many others). The primary source material for this compilation is actual diverse: writings of course, nevertheless also interviews, TV or video documents, etc The underlying make of the book is chronologic although the criteria that presided through the whole extent of the sequencing of the pages were not quite obvious (to me) The enigmatic demeanor of the Sphinx figure, as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but in Johnson's introduction and in Maxime Ducamp's photograph (p 37) may be the underlying theme. Looking at the history of photography from his twenty-first hundred promontory, the author's work can be considered as an attempt to give us [i]clavis[/i]s and show us paths, to understand the multi-facetted surface of what we now consider as fine-art photography. Obviously drawn from the collection of the museum, and at handed in a systematic and straight-forward way--each left page displays a short biography and a cite by a photographer whose work is illustrated forward the right page by a photograph--the material of Photography Speaks (III) currents classics as well as interesting insights in the medium. The works of Adalbert and Eugene Cuvelier could not have been shown 15 years ago as at the time too little was known of their work. Likewise the works and verse s by Antoine Claudet, the Langenheim brothers, Anna Atkins, Linnaeus Tripe, Leonard Misonne, Margaret Watkins, Marjorie satisfy John Pfahl, Sal Lopes, Robert Heinecken, Eiko Hosoe Patrick Nagatani and Andree Tracey, Robin Schwartz, Maria Martinez-Canas, will be pleasant stations in this "new history of photography". For instance no-one should miss the short further very relevant text by Cindy Sherman forward page 284: it is a rare document that clearly establishes the relevance of her work. The downfall of choices derived from a collection remains that a relevant works names are still missing that would be interesting additions (to Photography Speaks IV maybe): Jean Baudrillard, John Paul Caponigro, Keith Carter, Carl Chiarenza, Raymond Depardon, Joan Fontcuberta, Luigi Ghirri, Ralph Gibson, Harry Gruyeart, Michael Kenna, Martin Parr, Josef Koudelka, Nathan Lyon Joel Meyerowitz, Richard Misrach, Simon Norfolk, the Parke-Harrisons, Bernard Plossu Joel Peter Witkin (to cite a few favorites).

A novel generation of photographers is in a suitable manner represented though by recent and undisputable additions (among the 16 of the present day names) such as Rineke Dijkstra, Luc Delahaye, Thomas Struth and Gabriel Orozco. All use color photography and their works can also be viewed at the Chrysler museum in Norfolk as part of the exhibition that accompanies the release of this part Also titled Photography Speaks, it spreaded on September 4 and will remain in succession show until May 1, 2005 in the Alice and Sol B Frank Photography Galleries celebrating their eighteenth anniversary.

For any amateur (in the etymologic thinking principle of the term) of photography, this is a must-have.

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