Daniel Aaron, Harvard University
"Brilliantly elucidates how an informed cultural historian sees and interprets American images through the camera's eye."
Review
"Brilliantly elucidates how an informed cultural historian sees and interprets American images through the camera's eye."--Daniel Aaron, Harvard
"Alan Trachtenberg's Reading American Photographs gives fresh and fascinating insights into the household names of phototgraphic history."--Cornell Capa
"A splendid book [written with] learning and intellectual passion . . . thoroughly gratifying."--Alfred Kazin
"This is a must read for those interested in culture and politics. He brilliantly interprets the past for thepresent."--Wanda M. Corn, Standford University
"As Mr. Trachtenberg concludes, 'It is not so much a new but a clarifying light American photographs shed upon American relaity.' That light, as he has richly demonstrated, now illuminates our past in inescapable and powerful ways."--Williams S. McFeely, The New York Times
Review
"Brilliantly elucidates how an informed cultural historian sees and interprets American images through the camera's eye."--Daniel Aaron, Harvard
"Alan Trachtenberg's Reading American Photographs gives fresh and fascinating insights into the household names of phototgraphic history."--Cornell Capa
"A splendid book [written with] learning and intellectual passion . . . thoroughly gratifying."--Alfred Kazin
"This is a must read for those interested in culture and politics. He brilliantly interprets the past for thepresent."--Wanda M. Corn, Standford University
"As Mr. Trachtenberg concludes, 'It is not so much a new but a clarifying light American photographs shed upon American relaity.' That light, as he has richly demonstrated, now illuminates our past in inescapable and powerful ways."--Williams S. McFeely, The New York Times
Book Description
Winner of the Charles C. Eldredge Prize
In this book, Alan Trachtenberg reinterprets some of America's most significant photographs, presenting them not as static images but rather as rich cultural texts suffused with meaning and historical content. Reading American Photographs is lavishly illustrated with the work of such luminaries as Mathew Brady, Timothy O'Sullivan, and Walker Evans--pictures that document the American experience from 1839 to 1938. In an outstanding analysis, Trachtenberg eloquently articulates how the art of photography has both followed and shaped the course of American history, and how images captured decades ago provocatively illuminate the present.
About the Author
Alan Trachtenberg, Neil Gray, Jr., Professor of English and American Studies at Yale University, is the author of The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age.
Reading American Photographs: Images as History from Matthew Brady to Walker Evans ANNOTATION
An exploration of photographs as cultural events, which provides a broad perspective on a cluster of major American photographers.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
In this book, Alan Trachtenberg reinterprets some of America's most significant photographs, presenting them not as static images but rather as rich cultural texts suffused with meaning and historical content. Reading American Photographs is lavishly illustrated with the work of such luminaries as Mathew Brady, Timothy O'Sullivan, and Walker Evans--pictures that document the American experience from 1839 to 1938. In an outstanding analysis, Trachtenberg eloquently articulates how the art of photography has both followed and shaped the course of American history, and how images captured decades ago provocatively illuminate the present.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Trachtenberg's sophisticated discussion finds in American photographs a way of reading the past--``the past as culture, as ways of thinking and feeling, as experience.'' For this study he considers images originally edited as albums, books, or photo-stories. In such works as Mathew Brady's Gallery of Illustrious Americans, the Civil War albums of Alexander Gardner and George Barnard, Timothy O'Sullivan's Western survey photographs, Lewis Hine's social work projects and texts, and Walker Evans's American Photographs, he sees photographers trying to make sense of their society while seeking to create a role for photography as an American art. This impressive analysis, which employs social, cultural, and political history as well as art criticism, is highly recommended for American studies and photography collections. (Photographs not seen.) --Ann Copeland, Drew Univ. Lib., Madison, N.J.
Art & Photography
Book Info
