Photography
Carleton Watkins (1829–1916) is widely considered the greatest American photographer of the nineteenth century and arguably the most influential artist of his era. He is best known for his pictures of Yosemite Valley and the nearby Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias. Watkins made his first trip to Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove in 1861 just as the Civil War was beginning. His photographs of Yosemite were exhibited in New York for the first time in 1862, as news of the Union’s disastrous defeat at Fredericksburg was landing in newspapers and while the Matthew Brady Studio’s horrific photographs of Antietam were on view. Watkins’s work tied the West to Northern cultural traditions and played a key role in pledging the once-wavering West to Union.
Motivated by Watkins’s pictures, Congress would pass legislation, later signed by Abraham Lincoln, that preserved Yosemite as the prototypical “national park,” the first such act of landscape preservation in the world. Watkins’s photographs helped shape America’s idea of the West, and helped make the West a full participant in the nation. His pictures of California, Oregon, and Nevada, as well as modern-day Washington, Utah, and Arizona, not only introduced entire landscapes to America but were important to the development of American business, finance, agriculture, government policy, and science.
1st edition; published by Fraenkel Gallery, in association with Bedford Arts, Publishers, San Francisco. Essay by Peter E. Palmquist; dust jacket has very light scuffing; tan buckram with brown lettering on cover and spine; former owner's signature in ink on ffep; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/VG
Inge Morath's photographs of Chinese scenes from Peking to Shanghai are complemented and expanded upon byArthur Miller's incisive, informative commentary on Chinese politics, artistic expression, and life.
Inscribed by Miller on half-title; dust jacket in protective cover; very slight wear; dark blue embossed cloth with silver lettering on spine; top edge very slightly faded; inscription on ffep; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/VG
A photographic story of local women ages 60-92. Each one extraordinary in their powerful life’s choices. Each sharing stories of strength, courage, determination, and having the indomitable will to overcome adversity both personally and professionally.
My photographic adventure began at age 60. Beginning with learning through The Cleveland Photographic Society, then succeeding in having works displayed at area galleries. CLE. and donating my time to local agencies. Specializing in portraits, I recently published my first book titled Extraordinary Women from an Ordinary Place, featuring 52 women ages 60-94. A personal accomplishment at age 80, and a tribute to my sisters of age.
Exceptionally rare first U.S. PB edition, published 1991 by Bedford Arts, Solitude of Ravens is one of the most important photo-books to come out of Japan, let alone one of the most important photo-books of the 20th century. All editions of this book are extremely rare and increasingly valuable in both the private photo-book market as well as at art-book auctions.
1st U.S. edition, published by Bedford Arts, Publishers, 1991. First published in 1986 as Ravens by Sokyu-sha Co., Ltd., Japan. Softcover; scratch and scuffs on bottom right side of front cover; some scuffs on rear cover; otherwise in very good condition. G+
A Light Gallery Book, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, NY, 1975, nod, oblong with b&w photographs by Winogrand, essay by Helen Gary Bishop. Dust jacket in protective cover; head of spine lightly creased; small closed tear at bottom of front cover near spine; black cloth; binding good; text clean and bright. VG/VG