de Claus Biegert (Avec la contribution de), Eberhard Illner (Avec la contribution de), Peter Stepan (Sous la direction de)
Compiling photographs t
o convey a sense
o f time and place is not nearly as easy as some might think. Weighing in at ten pounds, America: A Celebration! could fool readers int
o thinking that it contained every photograph ever shot in America. Instead, it is Sandler's harvest
o f 19th- and 20th-century photos from the files
o f Getty Images, an enormous phot
o library. The ethic behind this bulk seems t
o be that more is more, and why show less if you can show it all? Though some 19th-century work begins the book, the 20th century quickly takes
o ver. Photographs are clustered by decade. But within each chapter the assembly is random a little landscape here, some celebrities there, popular culture foibles sprinkled in, and a visual chaos throughout. Sandler (American Images) had his book blessed by a fine foreword by Walter Cronkite. But the author's enthusiasm turned int
o a jumble
o f pictures rather than a coherent historical portrait
o f America. Not recommended. LIFE magazine remained true t
o its purpose
o f giving readers/viewers their world in weekly visual nuggets since its
o wn life began in 1936. It weathered television for six decades, finally ending as a monthly in May 2000. LIFE: Century
o f Change is a volume built
o n 723 photographs from the magazine's rich archives. Suffering lives appear next t
o riches in this book, s
o broad it is forced t
o be shallow, racing across the surface
o f a century with a well-aimed camera in hand. Less a tool for learning than a snapshot, this is a gift book t
o spark memories rather than an effort to
o pen up the 20th century for review. Recommended as a book for browsing if budgets allow. In Photos That Changed the World, Stepan (Icons
o f Photography) gives us 105 images that had the lasting visual power t
o capture a moment that could be the image
o f an era held in the instant
o f a shutter's click for distribution t
o a generation. Many
o f the photographs collected around the theme
o f "changing the world" are familiar. Some were used as propaganda; all are useful as
o ur tie t
o the events they depict. Sometimes their photographers are anonymous because
o f fear
o f reprisals, and many
o f the images were widely reproduced t
o build public
o pinion. The photos are well reproduced and gain from the explanations
o f time, place, and context included in the excellent short essays that accompany each. Recommended. David Bryant, New Canaan Lib., CT
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Broché: 190 pages
Editeur : Prestel Publishing (30 mars 2007)
Langue : Anglais
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