Photography: A Cultural History

Mary Warner Marien

Laurence King Publishing, 2006 - Photography - 544 pages

Here is the history weve been waiting for ... erudite and entertaining ... she shows how pictures really did change our world. Her shrewd selection of over 600 fascinating photos (many in colour) illustrate a history that meets the ultimate test; open to any page and youre hooked ... and its free from tormenting academic jargon. Camera Arts This groundbreaking survey of international photography, which examines the discipline across the full range of its uses by both professionals and amateurs, has been expanded and brought up to date for this second edition. Each of the eight chapters takes a period of up to forty years and examines the medium through the lenses of art, science, social science, travel, war, fashion, the mass media and individual practitioners. These broad topics complement a fully developed cultural context whose emphasis is more on key ideas than individuals. The author also pays close attention to how contemporary practitioners, commentators and beholders have talked about specific works, the nature of photography and the photographers changing role in society.

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Photography: a cultural history

User Review  - Not Available - Book Verdict

Marien (fine arts, Syracuse Univ.) winnows the abundant photographic production of the mid-19th to the late 20th centuries to harvest a concise and essential chronology of the medium's technologies ...

Contents

• CHAPTER: 1
• Antoine Florence and the Question: 7
• Responses to: 15
• The Stranger: 22
• Iron Class: 29
• Biology: 35
• Recording Events with: 44
• Expeditionary and Travel: 50
• The Historic Monuments: 56
• Coloring the Image: 64
• CHAPTER THREE: 81
• The Photographer and Fine Art: 87
• Women Behind the Camera: 93
• War and Photography: 99
• Mathew Brady: 106
• The FrancoPrussian War: 113
• CHAPTER FOUR: 165
• Pictorialism: 171
• The PhotoSecession: 179
• The Nude and Pictorialism: 186
• Anthropological Pictorialism: 192
• Photography and: 201
• The Ideal City: 208
• TheXRay: 214
• The National Geographic: 220
• The SpanishAmerican War: 226
• CHAPTER FIVE: 235
• Dada and After: 242
• Dada and Paris: 249
• Experimental Photography: 260
• California Modern: 268
• Social Science Social Change: 276
• Margaret BourkeWhite: 284
• The Common Man and: 301
• Constructed Realities 450 Glossary 513: 326
• The West and the Cold War: 334
• PostPhotography 398: 7-12
• Face Value 408: 7-24
• The Color of Concern 415: 7-32
• The Cambodian Genocide: 7-48
• Thinking Photography 433: 7-54
• Feminism and Postmodern: 7-63
• Looking at Children 470 Timeline 518: 7-106
• CHAPTER EIGHT: 7-113
• Photographic Practice: 7-120
• China 502: 7-126
• The Animal Kingdom 508: 7-132

About the author

Mary Warner Marien teaches at Syracuse University where she worked closely with William Fleming on the previous edition of ARTS and IDEAS. She is the author of numerous articles, book reviews, and essays on these and other subjects. Her book, PHOTOGRAPHY AND ITS CRITICS: A CULTURAL HISTORY was named one of the two best books in photographic history for 1997. She recently completed PHOTOGRAPHY: A CULTURAL HISTORY (2002), a new survey of the history of photography, with special emphasis on contemporary global practice. Her current research project is an investigation of the women's movement in the late twentieth-century and its relationship to feminist art and art theory.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Photography: A Cultural History
• Author: Mary Warner Marien
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Laurence King Publishing, 2006
• ISBN: 1856694933, 9781856694933
• Length: 544 pages