| Images of the West: Survey Photography in French Collections, 1860-1880 Contributor(s): Griffith, Bronwyn (Editor), Brunet, François (Editor), Gidley, Mick (Contribution by) |
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ISBN: 0932171540 ISBN-13: 9780932171542 Publisher: Terra Foundation for the Arts OUR PRICE: $44.10 Product Type: Hardcover Published: July 2007 Annotation: As American settlement expanded westward in the 1860s, the U.S. government undertook large-scale investigations of its new territories. "Images of the West: Survey Photography in French Collections, 1860-1880" presents memorable glass-plate photographs from these federal surveys. The selection includes breathtaking views of such iconic sites as Yosemite, as well as lesser-known ethnographic portraits taken by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, William H. Jackson, and William Bell, among others. The accompanying essays discuss how the photographs were used to promote white settlement, how their distribution at home and abroad contributed to the aggrandizement of the American West, and how the exploitative ideology underlying the use of photography extended to attitudes toward both American landscapes and American Indians. The images are all drawn from French public collections, which hold an astonishing number of these U.S. survey photographs. Accompanying an exhibition at the Musee d'Art Americain Giverny, "Images of the West" provides a critical new examination of a bygone era. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Photography | Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions - General - Photography | Criticism |
| Dewey: 770.978 |
| LCCN: 2007018879 |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 9.19" W x 11.25" (1.88 lbs) 136 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: As American settlement expanded westward in the 1860s, the U.S. government undertook large-scale investigations of its new territories. Images of the West: Survey Photography in French Collections, 1860-1880 presents memorable glass-plate photographs from these federal surveys. The selection includes breathtaking views of such iconic sites as Yosemite, as well as lesser-known ethnographic portraits taken by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, William H. Jackson, and William Bell, among others. The accompanying essays discuss how the photographs were used to promote white settlement, how their distribution at home and abroad contributed to the aggrandizement of the American West, and how the exploitative ideology underlying the use of photography extended to attitudes toward both American landscapes and American Indians. The images are all drawn from French public collections, which hold an astonishing number of these U.S. survey photographs. Accompanying an exhibition at the Mus e d'Art Am ricain Giverny, Images of the West provides a critical new examination of a bygone era. |
Contributor Bio(s): Brunet, Francois: - Francois Brunet is a professor of American art and literature at Universite Paris Diderot. He is the author of Photography and Literature and coeditor of Images of the West: Survey Photographs in French Collections, 1860 1880, the latter also published by the Terra Foundation for American Art. |