Description

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

About the book >.>.> Devising the first major Tate exhibition dedicated to the photographic medium was a tremendously challenging task given that there are so many fascinating aspects of the medium to explore. The first big question was how to limit the scope in order to avoid any attempt at an encyclopaedic survey. In addition it was important that the exhibition should be embedded in the practice of the present moment reaching backwards in time towards a limited number of significant historical figures. In early discussions two key figures August Sander and Walker Evans emerged as practitioners who continue to exert a powerful influence upon contemporary practice and from here we constructed a pattern of association which extended up to the present day. In addition in an attempt to define the cold-eyed view of the world that was symptomatic of both as well as much of the other work we were interested in the phrase (coined by Lincoln Kirstein when describing the work of Walker Evans) ‘tender cruelty’ was useful and this became a marker for the selection of participants and bodies of work. Detecting a balance between engagement and estrangement worked as a criterion for our selection helping to define a unified and coherent visual language for the show. This criterion also helped us define other aspects of our selection: we were looking for work that was analytical yet interested but not romantic redemptive or solipsistic. Focusing upon Sander and Evans as the chief historical axes for the show also created the fascinating opportunity of placing the German and North American photographic traditions alongside one another-something which has not been done before in either (OS)