The Ongoing MomentIn his most recent book, Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It, Geoff Dyer confessed that not only did he not take pictures in the course of his travels but that he does not even own a camera. With characteristic perver-sity-- and trademark originality-- Dyer has now come up with an idiosyncratic history of . . . photography. Seeking to identify their signature styles, Dyer looks at the ways in which such canonical figures as Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Walker Evans, Andre Kerte sz, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Diane Arbus, and William Eggleston, among others, have photographed the same things (barber shops, benches, hands, roads, and signs, for example). In doing so, he constructs a narrative in which these photographers-- many of whom never met-- constantly encounter one another. Great photographs change the way we see the world; The Ongoing Moment changes the way we look at both. It is the most ambitious example to date of a form of writing that Dyer has made his own: the nonfiction work of art. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Alfred Stieglitz American Photographs André Kertész Arbus's artist Atget Avedon barber became become bench black-and-white blurred Borges Brassaï camera Cartier-Bresson Center for Creative chair Charis Cheever clouds colour Creative Photography D. H. Lawrence dark Daybooks Vol DeCarava Diane Arbus door Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange Collection Edward Weston Eggleston empty Evans's eyes face fact fence film footnote frame Frank Gallery Garry Winogrand Gedney glimpsed going hand happened Hopper ibid Imogen Cunningham Jack Leigh James Nachtwey Joel Meyerowitz Lange's Lartigue Lawrence looking Michael Ormerod moved Nachtwey night nudes O'Keeffe Paris park Paul Strand photographer's picture Poems portrait prints quoted road seen sense shows sitting Steichen Stephen Shore street subway symbolic Szarkowski taken thing took ture turn unmade bed Untitled waiting Walker Evans Walker Evans Archive wall wearing Weegee William Eggleston window woman York