History & Criticism - General & Miscellaneous Photography
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Overview
Diana & Nikon: Essays on Photography by Janet Malcolm. Originally comprised of eleven essays, this expanded edition of Diana & Nikon, Janet Malcolm's first book, presents five new essays that explore the final work of Diane Arbus, Sally Mann's family pictures, E. J. Bellocq's famous 1912 nudes, Andrew Bush's richly detailed interiors, and the relationship between painting and photography. Illustrated with 100 blackandwhite photographs, this is a sensitive and generous appraisal of where photography stands in relation to all the arts, and to its own past, by one of the leading writers of her generation. Malcolm offers a view of photography that is as complicated and as controversial as the medium itself. Her writings on such topics as Richard Avedon's portraits, Gary Winogrand's street photographs, and Harry Callahan's color work exhibit the elegant prose style and incisive commentary for which she is renowned. The text of the original editionnow a muchsoughtafter rarityis reprinted here in full, including essays on the works of the masters Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Edward Weston, as well as such contemporaries as Robert Frank, Irving Penn, and William Eggleston. Janet Malcolm has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since the 1960s. She is the author of the critically acclaimed books The Journalist and the Murderer, The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, The Purloined Clinic: Selected Writings, and other titles. Born in Prague, Malcolm grew up in New York City, where she lives with her husband. 100 blackandwhite photographs, 5 1/2 X 8 1/4, 224 pages. Hardcover. ."Janet Malcolm's collection of essays must surely constitute one of the most thoughtful works everto address the subject [of photography]."
Boston Globe.
"Fascinating reading for anyone interested in the 'art' of photography. A stimulating collection; and impressive book."
Mademoiselle
Editorials
Library Journal
This expanded version of Malcolm's 1980 collection of essays on photography includes five new essays, greater use of photo images, and a new preface to supplement the original. Malcolm, a staff writer for The New Yorker and a talented photography critic, takes images for intellectual rides that sometimes end in surprising places. Still eager to analyze the snapshot style that emerged in the latter half of this century, Malcolm sees these works as art but closer to literature than they are to craft. The newest essays in this collection are by no means her strongest, but they do expand the value of this book by offering more of the connections that the writer makes so well, between the choices made by photographers, reality, the arts in general, and the essence of the visuals she probes. However, even with more images than the original edition, their relative scarcity remains a weakness. Still, this is recommended for photography collections.David Bryant, New Canaan P.L., Ct.Booknews
The relationship of photography to painting, the polarity of the fine art and vernacular traditions, and the connection between photography and modernism are some of the topics which crop up again and again in this collection of 16 essays which explore the works of a number of photographers. The essays discuss Richard Avedon's portraits, Sally Mann's family picture, the final works of Diane Arbus, E.J. Bellocq's 1912 nudes, as well as the works of others such as Stieglitz, Steichen, Weston, and Eggleston. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.Book Details
Published
September 30, 1997
Publisher
New York, N.Y. : Aperture, c1997.
Pages
224
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780893817275