CALLAHAN SISKIND SOMMER: AT THE CROSSROADS OF AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY

Santa Fe, New Mexico: Radius Books, 2009. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Radius Books, 2009. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 150 pages. Retrospective Monograph. One of the best books on photography ever published in our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. A brilliant production by Radius Books: Oversize-volume format. Pictorial hard boards with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Photographs by Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, and Frederick Sommer. Essays by Keith F. Davis and other distinguished specialist-contributors. Printed in tritone on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in Germany to the highest standards. The reproduction quality is outstanding in every respect. In pictorial DJ with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Presents "Callahan Siskind Sommer: At The Crossroads of American Photography". A stunning re-consideration of the photographic art and achievement of the Institute of Design's triumphant triumvirate. "Examines the aesthetic and personal interrelationships of photographers who helped define the course of American photography after Stieglitz: Frederick Sommer (1905-1999) , Harry Callahan (1912-1999) and Aaron Siskind (1903-1991) . Although each member of this 'holy trinity' has been honored with numerous retrospectives, this is the very first full-fledged comparison of their work: An exploration of their robust, prescient exchange of ideas about photography, abstraction, and metaphor over the course of their 25 years as colleagues and friends. Helped shape the evolution of photography as an art form, creating a bridge between the purity of photography at mid-century and the hybrid approaches to the medium today. Brings to light contrasting philosophies of the artist/photographer's role - influenced by Existentialism for Siskind and Spinoza for Sommer -, their interest in chance as an artistic process, the expressive potential of found objects, and experimental abstraction" (Publisher's blurb) . The influence of the visual arts on photography and photography's decisive influence upon the visual arts are foundational and seminal, not incidental or accidental. It is not possible to think of The New Bauhaus, Abstract Expressionism, and perhaps most important, Surrealism without taking into account the give-and-take between photography and these great moments of Modernism. An absolute "must-have" title for Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, and Frederick Sommer collectors. This title is a contemporary photography classic. This is one of few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws yet are priced as though they had collectible value. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with tritone plates. Three of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. A fine copy. . ISBN 1934435155.