Beauty in Photography: Essays in Defense of Traditional Values"These essays address us in the quiet voice of a working photographer, an artist and craftsman who has thought long and seriously about his endeavor, who has tested and questioned his own assumptions in the light of actual practice. The result is a rare book of criticism, one that is alive to the pleasure and mysteries of true exploration. Written over a ten-year period, and originally published in 1981, this timeless collection of writings now includes a new preface by the author. Robert Adams possesses the wit to avoid cant, dogma, and platitudes of the scholar that can deaden our responses to the lively business of art. His eight essays pose a host of questions about photography's place in the arts--and in our lives: How is photography art? Of what importance is it to society? By what standards are we to judge the success or failure of a photograph? His reflections are delicate, unusually calm, but they also carry the force of sure conviction, the passion of absolute dedication. Few visual artists are capable of articulating the subtle, potent wellsprings of their own creative achievement. Adams does so with extraordinary grace and power. This book offers not only an insight into the work of a distinguished photographer, but also an illuminating challenge and corrective to the usual pieties and pettiness of photographic circumstance of today." -- Provided by publisher |
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abstractions affirmation Alfred Stieglitz Ansel Adams Aperture argued artist asked attention BEAUTY IN PHOTOGRAPHY believe Ben Shahn better C. A. Hickman camera Capa's Cézanne color Colorado composition concern contemporary creation critics David Smith discover Dorothea Lange Edward endure essays evidence evil example experience fact finally Form Frank Gohlke geography Gohlke's graphs Hammarskjöld hope implies important landscape art Lee Friedlander live look Masaccio Matisse meaning metaphor Minor White Museum Nicholas Nixon nonetheless observed ourselves painters painting and sculpture Paul Strand perennial style perhaps photographer's photography as art Plate poet question rapher raphy record reflection reminded response reveal ROBERT ADAMS scene seems sense shape sincerity specifics struggle subject matter successful suggest T. S. Eliot things tion true truth ture understand viewers views vision Walker Percy Weston wilderness William Carlos Williams world of appear write York