Originally published in 1973 by MoMA and reprinted several times over the years (my copy is from 1999) and worth buying for some great historical photos but also in equal measure John Szarowski's excellent comments on the hundred photos. All of them are mono, this is because color wasn't considered 'art' until Szarowski curated the work of Bill Eggleston in a 1976 MoMA exhibition. I've always liked this selection of photos, of course, people are the dominant point of many of them but here are still lifes, landscapes, a strobe shot of a foot kicking a football, first world war aerial reconnaissance, architecture, street scenes and more.
On page 151 is Eugene Smith's famous photo of a doctor treating a head wound of a young girl, which was from a photo essay in Life magazine, September 1948. Szarowski makes the point that millions of people primarily experienced photos in newspapers and magazines (and in their advertisements). Still, it's impossible to tell looking through the pages what images were commissioned or a photographer's personal shot.
The book's first photo is a portrait of a mother and daughter taken by William Shaw around 1850, the last is a 1968 landscape by Henry Wessel. Between these dates, you can enjoy looking at some amazing photos (printed as three hundred screen duotones) that are part of the medium's history.
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