Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art

by John Szarkowski

Book Overview

Originally published in 1973, this marvelous collection of photographs with accompanying texts by the revered late Museum of Modern Art photography curator John Szarkowski has long been recognized as... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870705156
• Release Date: March 2009
• Publisher: The Museum of Modern Art
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 1.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.0" x 0.6" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Looking at Photographs - Available Again

Thanks to the reliable and insightful reviews and discussions on Mike Johnston's "The Online Photographer", I've had the opportunity to purchase several fine books about photography and photographers. Those by John Szarkowski, recently Director of the Photography Division of the Museum of Modern Art, are at the top of my list of favorites. He was an excellent photographer all of his life and made use of his artistic sense and his thoughtful approach to strengthen and expand MOMA's photography collection and to comment in print about the history, techniques, and esthetics of that art form. This book is an important contribution to my library.

Just order it

Ok, back in print finally,this is a must have addition to your photographic library. The criticism of images from MOMA, by John Szarkowski, will open your mind to the story behind the photographs. It is a cliff notes of a master class in understanding photography.

A Photophile's MUST HAVE

I got an undergrad degree in Photography and this is the best book I was ever required to read. I LOVE THIS BOOK! If you are serious about photography, get this book. If you want to understand more about photography, get this book. If you know a photo lover, get this book! One page is the image, the opposing page is a short essay on what is critically imporant about this photographer/image/style. Really - if you are thinking about it and going so far as to read these comments, you should just go ahead and buy this book.

See More . . . Through Photographs

Although this book has much less female nudity than many photographic books, there are two such pages in the book. If this type of representation is offensive to you, either skip this book or avoid those pages. This book has modest purposes. "This is a picture book, and its first purpose is to provide the material for simple delectation." Beyond that, it is "a visual interim report [as of 1973] on the results of collecting photographs at The Museum of Modern Art." These purposes are magnificently fulfilled, and your eyes and mind will be filled with many useful new perspectives and thoughts as a result of your delectations here. Your life will be expanded by seeing much more, both in photographs and in life, as a result. Mr. Szarkowski, head of the photography collection at MOMA, points at that photography "has received little serious study." As a result, a language and analytical framework for considering photography are not yet developed. To overcome that limitation. Mr. Szarkowski has provided a number of perspectives in the one-page essays that accompany each page of photography. These perspectives include the utilitarian purpose of the image, the style of the photographer, the technology of the methods used, and the significance of the subjects or subject. He also draws your attention to detail or information that expand your knowledge. It is like having the best docent's photography tour of your life, as you go through the images. These essays are modestly described as simply "an attempt to describe photography from a somewhat more liberal and exploratory perspective." Well, they are much more than that. They are like turning the light on to see the photographs for the first time, unless you are a talented photographer already. In creating this book, a great decision was made to limit each photographer to one page of work. In this way, you get to see more types of images and styles. I think this added greatly to the knowledge and enjoyment that can be gained from this wonderful book. A great benefit of this approach was to allow selecting photographs that would reproduce well in this page size format. I heartily approve of that approach!In the book you will find portraits, sketches for painters, ways of recording far away places, Civil War reporting, aerial reconnaisance, methods of encouraging connections, insights into the physics of life, and efforts to be a successor to painting. As the author says, "Photography has remained . . . radical, instructive, disruptive, influential, problematic, and [an] astonishing phenomenon of the modern epoch."Here are my favorite images:D.O. Hill and W.B. Johnston, David Octavius Hill, Celotype, c. 1845Baron Isadore Taylor, Nadar, Woodbury type, 1872Madonna with Children, Julia Margaret Cameron, Albumen print, c. 1866 Sugar Bowl with Rowboat, Wisconsin Dells, Henry Hamilton Bennett, 1911Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, Paris, Jacques Henri LartigueGeorgia Engelhard, Alfred Stieglitz, 1921

The book I was REALLY hoping for !

This book fills the reader with emotion and knowledge about photography and photographs. I will never look at a photograph the same way after having read it. The language is beautiful and inspiring and photographs wonderfully reproduced. Anyone who loves the subject or art in general will find excitement on every page. NOW I can begin to know which photographers to study first and how to approach an enormous subject.