Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> American photography from the turn of the century through the mid-1960s offers one of the richest and most coherent traditions in the history of the medium. This book explores that tradition in depth through superb reproductions of 183 photographs from the outstanding collection of The Museum of Modern Art. Toward the end of the nineteenth century pho- tographs became radically easier to make and to repro- duce. The result was a vast new range of audiences and applications for photography. From untutored snap- shooter to specialized professional the swelling ranks of photographers produced a sprawling diversity of new pic- tures which recorded and helped to create modern America. At the same time there arose an elite movement that withdrew from the undisciplined bustle of the mod- ern world and claimed for photography a position among the fine arts. The movement led by Alfred Stieglitz and his Photo-Secession group thus opened a cultural divide in American photography. For three quarters of a century “the lasting con- tentions created by the divide as well as the animating sparks that leapt across it propelled the ceaseless renewal of modern American photography” writes Peter Galassi in his introductory essay. The first part of the essay con- cisely outlines the evolution and interplay of photogra- phy’s high-art and vernacular traditions. The second part traces the growth of the pioneering photography program at The Museum of Modern Art in which Ansel Adams Edward Steichen and other leading American photogra- phers played decisive roles. (MP)