Photography and the USA

From Ansel Adams to Carlton Watkins, Diane Arbus to Weegee, Berenice Abbott to James Van Der Zee, American photographers have recorded their vast and diverse nation in images that have come to define American identity, both within the country and in the world’s eye. In Photography and the USA, Mick Gidleyasks how and why photography has been such a significant force in shaping American culture.

Featuring approximately one hundred iconic and lesser-known images, Photography and the USA encompasses the major movements, artists, and works that are crucial to understanding American photography. Focusing on works that reveal the many different facets of America, its landscapes and its people, Gidley explores the ambiguities of American history and culture. Gidley’s unique analysis juxtaposes images such as an anti-lynching demonstration in 1934 with Dorothea Lange’s poster “All races serve the crops in California,” and an image of a fireman in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 against the Ground Zero photographs of Joel Meyerowitz taken in 2001. Organizing his narrative around ideas of documentary, history, and technology, Gidley not only presents a history of photography, but also reveals the complexities inherent in reading photographs themselves.

            A concise yet comprehensive overview of photography in the United States, this book is an excellent introduction for students of American history or the visual arts, as well as the general reader fascinated by the role of the image in American history and culture.