Photographs: collections Books

Book SynopsisJune grass at sunset, Indian grass at sunrise, hawk moths and monarch butterflies nectaring on purple fringed orchids and rough blazing star, little bluestem and saw-tooth sunflowers and butterfly milkweed in hill prairies and sand prairies, and blue skies and one bright rainbow arching over them all. Bill Witt has been photographing Iowa's wild places for more than thirty years, and the result is this collection of splendid images that reveal the glorious beauty and diversity of the state's prairie remnants. Witt gives us close-ups of pasque flower shoots covered with ice in spring, coneflowers dancing in a summer breeze, and prairie dropseed in its autumn colors as well as such prairie companions as sandhill cranes, northern harriers, and bison. His panoramic visions of prairie landscapes in all seasons focus on the personal pleasure and spiritual sustenance that connecting with prairies, even small and neglected ones, can bring us. Osha Davidson's essay compares today's prairie remnants with yesterday's expanses and calls for us to restore balance to this damaged landscape. Altogether, ""Enchanted by Prairie"" celebrates today's prairie landscape and encourages us, in Davidson's words, to restore its 'beauty and scents and textures and sounds'.

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Book Synopsis"Wedding Dogs" captures man's best friend at 75 weddings-dogs as the best man, maid of honor, ring bearer, or another member of the wedding party! Decked out in little doggy tuxedos or sporting a wreath of roses around their necks, these pooches share in the wedding couple's big day. Each photograph is accompanied by a brief essay telling the dog's (and the couple's) story. A perfect wedding, bridal shower, or groom's gift, "Wedding Dogs" shares the joy of the moment when dogs join in the celebration of their owners' most special day.Trade Review“Featuring dozens of photos depicting newlyweds and their favorite canine companions, this delightful book is a joy to have and to hold.”—Dish Magazine“…a compilation of THE cutest doggie moments snapped at weddings…”—Cosmopolitan.com “…will speak to anyone who has ever known the joy of raising a beloved pet.”—Inside Weddings“Because, let’s be honest, your dog might actually love you more than your toddler nephew does: Shouldn’t Fido be the one in the wedding? Check out amazing photos of canine partiers in Wedding Dogs: A Celebration of Holy Muttrimony.”—Redbook

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Book SynopsisLong before a hopeful actor was given a screen test, their portraits were taken to determine the camera appeal of new faces. Silver Screen Silver Prints showcases Hollywood’s invention of the glamour portrait, representing the distinctive styles of such photographers as George Hurrell, Clarence Sinclair Bull, and Ruth Harriet Louise and charting the evolution from soft-focus Pictorialism to sculptured modernist glamor. Thematic sections focus on Hollywood fashion as promoted by photography and on the development of the discernible Paramount Studios house style. Photographs of iconic actors, including Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, and Ramon Novarro, show how the portrait camera lens shaped their most enduring images. Elizabeth Taylor, the last great star of the Hollywood studio system, who used photography strategically to guide an upward trajectory from her early days as a child actress to her long reign as an international superstar, is featured. Taken together, the photographs in this catalogue, published in connection with the 2011 Grolier Club exhibition, demonstrate the centrality of studio portraits to the film industry’s star-making apparatus, especially in the two decades before the Second World War.

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Book SynopsisThis is a compelling look at one of photography's most beloved subjects. This volume is the ninth in a group of photography books drawn from the holdings of The J. Paul Getty Museum, each volume focusing on a specific theme or genre spanning the history of the medium from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Animals in Photographs traces the relationship between animal representation and the possibilities presented by rapid advancements in camera and film technologies. In his opening essay, Arpad Kovacs explores the allegorical, social, scientific, and aesthetic approaches to a subject that has been of continuous interest to photographers across the centuries. Eighty full-color plates represent image makers ranging from unknown daguerreotypists and nineteenth-century innovators Felice Beato and Eadweard Muybrudge to early twentieth-century artists Andre Kertesz, Alexander Rodchenko, August Sander, and Alfred Stieglitz to mid-twentieth-century photographers Berenice Abbott, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, and Man Ray. More recent makers Linda Connor, Robert Mapplethorpe, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and William Wegman, along with contemporary artists Tim Hawkinson, Pieter Hugo, and Graciela Iturbide build on that history to round out a group of images that is both distinctive and intriguing. This book is published on the occasion of the exhibition In Focus: Animalia, on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, from May 26 to October 18, 2015.

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Book SynopsisIn Wyoming Revisited, Michael A. Amundson uses the power of rephotography to show how landscapes across the state have endured over the last century. Three sets of photographs-the original black-and-white photographs taken by famed Wyoming photographer Joseph E. Stimson more than a century ago, repeat black-and-white images taken by Amundson in the 1980s, and a third view in color taken by the author in 2007-2008-are accompanied by captions explaining the history and importance of each site as well as information on the process of repeat photographic fieldwork. The 117 locations feature street views of Wyoming towns and cities, as well as views from the state's famous natural landmarks like Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Devil's Tower National Monument, Hot Springs State Park, and Big Horn and Shoshone National Forests. In addition, Amundson provides six in-depth essays that explore the life of Joseph E. Stimson, the rephotographic process and how it has evolved, and how repeat photography can be used to understand history, landscape, historic preservation, and globalization. Wyoming Revisited highlights the historic evolution of the American West over the past century and showcases the significant changes that have occurred over the past twenty-five years. This book will appeal to photographers, historians of the American West, and anyone interested in Wyoming's history or landscape. The publication of this book is supported in part by the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund.

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Book SynopsisHidden away in the canyons of a highly restricted military base on the edge of the Mojave Desert is the largest concentration of rock art in North America, possibly in the world. Images of animals, shamans, and puzzling abstract forms were peckedand painted on stone over thousands of years by a now long-gone culture. Talking Stone: Rock Art of the Cosos is a multivocal investigation of this art. Acclaimed cinematographer Paul Goldsmith takes the reader on a visual journey through this limited access area with more than 160 stunningcolor photographs. The book is structured around Goldsmith’s treks into the remote desert canyons and his meetings with archaeologists, Native Americans, a psychologist, an artist, bow hunters, and the commanding officer in charge of the military base. The result is a visually striking book that gives the viewer a personal and visceral experience of this enigmatic art.Trade Review“This book does a lovely job of showing the range of variability in rock art in the Cosos and the setting for that rock art. The minimal text keeps the attention on the imagery and photos. One can take great pleasure in simply looking at the rock art.” —Amy Gilreath, Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc. “This is a very personal take on the enigmatic rock art of the Coso Range. It’s a book built around images—spectacular pictures of some very sophisticated petroglyphs. The images tell the story.” —David Hurst Thomas, Department of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History “A visual delight. . . . Goldsmith supplements these photos with a narrative that is both personal and well informed. . . . The book will delight everyone with an interest in Native American rock art.”—American Archaeology

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Book SynopsisEvery Sunday evening for almost ten years, Iowa photographer and naturalist Carl Kurtz has e-mailed a photo and an extended caption to hundreds of outdoor enthusiasts. Engaging and informative, the photos focus on the world around and away from his tallgrass prairie homeplace: snow buntings in a blizzard, maple leaves in fall, migrating snow geese and red-winged blackbirds and monarchs, prairie spiderworts in spring bloom, leopard frogs loafing on waterlily leaves, northern flickers feeding young, and all the inhabitants and moods of the passing seasons. Now, in A Year of Iowa Nature, he presents fifty-five of his favourite photos along with an evocative introduction that urges us to go forth and discover the beauty in our own backyards.Concentrating on Iowa’s tallgrass prairie, Kurtz also points his viewfinder toward the great variety of natural habitats in the eastern United States. Arranged chronologically throughout the year, the fifty-five colour photos and their accompanying narratives rotate through the seasons like a nature film. The winter months showcase a frost-covered white-tailed deer, cedar waxwings feeding on winter apples, a muskrat on the surface of an icy pond, and dune-like snowdrifts. Kurtz’s palette warms up in springtime with stunning photos of Virginia bluebells, fox cubs, juvenile chipmunks, and ruddy ducks. Summer brings a host of butterflies, frogs, and goldfinches as well as blooming prairie plants. The colours become more subdued in fall with the change in light, revealing the rich hues of Indian grass and big bluestem and the subtle plumage of migrating warblers.Just as Kurtz’s Practical Guide to Prairie Reconstruction offers an indispensable manual for individuals and land managers working to create a diverse prairie community, so does A Year of Iowa Nature point the way toward a sincere, month-by-month appreciation of the natural world around us.

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Book SynopsisFort Mackinac was home to more than 4,500 British and U.S. soldiers between 1780 and 1895. These soldiers constructed buildings and walls, drilled on the parade ground, marched sentry beats, and performed myriad maintenance and administrative duties in support of the fort’s strategic military function. That function varied greatly over the fort’s 115-year history.During the first half-century of its occupation the island fort protected and controlled the upper Great Lakes fur trade and served as an administrative centre for maintaining alliances with the region’s Native Americans. By the late 1830s the decline of the fur trade and acquisition of Native American lands that resulted in the creation of the state of Michigan diminished the fort’s strategic value.It was not until after the Civil War that Fort Mackinac regained a role of importance, when it became the headquarters for the country’s second national park. In this volume, Mackinac State Historic Parks’ director Phil Porter tells the story of Fort Mackinac through the lives and activities of its soldiers.This book is profusely illustrated with more than 150 historic oil portraits, maps, and photographs collected from libraries and museums across the United States and Great Britain. Military historians and readers interested in Mackinac’s rich military history will appreciate the interesting and visually compelling story of soldier life at Fort Mackinac in The Soldiers of Fort Mackinac: An Illustrated History.

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