Product Description

The Photographers Eye, available again after some years out of print, offers a guide to the mediums visual language through works by such early masters as Atget, Cartier-Bresson, Evans, Strand and Weston. In this re-issue, 172 illustrations reveal the extraordinary range of the photograph from the early days of the mediums development to the mid-1960s. They are accompanied by an essay from Szarkowski, one of the most influential photography curators and critics of our time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4257 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 156 pages

Customer Reviews

The Great Curator's Greatest Moment
Szarkowski was not a great photographer but he was a renowned curator, and this book reflects the content of an exhibition which was a genuine watershed in the history of photography. I didn't realise until I had had it for a while just how seminal both it and the exhibition were, but put simply, Szarkowski consolidated the view that photography is a democratic medium that does not rely on the efforts of the best. A great picture can come from anywhere and many of the pictures in this collection are from unknown photographers. Pictures speak for themselves and an accidentally brilliant picture can have as resonant a voice as one taken by a Cartier-Bresson, an Atget, a Brandt or anyone else. True, these great photographers made a habit of systematically tuning their perception to capture the "decisive moment", or the composition that told a story in a single image; but that did not give them, their forbears or their successors a monopoly of pictorial virtue. This is a lovely collection, briefly and brilliantly annotated. I would say that anyone who seriously wants to study the history of photography should own this book. And anyone who loves intriguing pictures too.

A welcome return
It's good to see this back in print again. It's remained one of my favourite photography books for more than 20 years. There isn't a dull image in this collection and they are arranged in surprising combinations. A classic.

great book
excellent photography book, would recommend this book, quality images that make you think, and make you look again at how they were taken