Professional Camera Work for Photography & Videography - Perfect for Travel, Events, and Content Creation

Camera Work was the most important publication in the early development of modern photography. Camera Work was the first primarily pictoral periodical.Edited by the indefatigable Alfred Steiglitz, the publication was the voice of the important Photo-Secession, but operated independently of it. Through Camera Work, early aficionados of great photography were able to discover the works of the first geniuses in this field. Later the publication also introduced Americans to the works of Marin, Matisse, Picasso, and Cezanne.Please realize that I am rating this book for its value as a historical reference. This is not a coffee table book, and many of the images will not attract the casual observer. If you are looking for a book of beautiful and wonderfully reproduced photographs, this is not your book.Before going further, please also realize that this book contains many tasteful nudes and would be "R" rated as a motion picture.The book's strength is that it contains all of the illustrations (and even some of the advertisements) from the entire 50 issues of Camera Work. For most people, this book is the only way you can observe that work. Although many people have heard about Stieglitz's work in advocating photography, few have seen what an issue of Camera Work looked like. You will also benefit from seeing the essays that Stieglitz wrote about the photographers. These were done in New Yorker style and are very accessible variations on the essays often found in catalogues for exhibitions. In fact, Camera Work increasingly doubled as a summary of exhibitions at 291, Stieglitz's gallery.The book comes with a fine essay (in English, German, and French) that explains many valuable details about Camera Work.Stieglitz was very dedicated to quality and sought out the best reproduction processes for the images involved. Unfortunately, these reproductions as done for this volume will fall short of the expectations of most viewers. The pages are quite small, making many images appear differently than they were probably intended.Stieglitz liked photography that included a soft focus or the diffusion of light that fog and rain can provide. In many cases, these effects are enhanced by other techniques to make the resulting images more abstract. In this book's format, these images often don't look their best. In particular, it seemed to me that many of the images were overinked in this printing, which would create more obscurity than was intended by the artist.Here are my favorite photographic images from the book:Bartholome, 1903, Edward SteichenLetitia Felix, 1903, Clarence WhiteEly Cathedral, 1903, Frederick EvansStorm Light, 1904, Will CadbyIllustration to "Eben Holden," 1905, Clarence WhiteKatherine, 1905, Alfred StieglitzExperiment in Three-color Photography, 1906, Edward SteichenMrs. Julia Ward Howe, 1907, Sarah SearsThe Rudder, 1908, Alvin CoburnSpider-webs, 1908, Alvin CoburnStill Life [glass bowl with floating flowers], 1908, Baron A. de MeyerPortrait Group, 1912, H. Mortimer LambThe Balloon Man, 1912, Baron A. de MeyerEllen Terry, 1913, Julia Margaret CameronDryads, 1913, Annie BrigmanNew York, 1916, Paul StrandPhotograph [shadows on geometric objects], 1917, Paul StrandAfter you finish enjoying this remarkable collection, I suggest that you think about how the styles represented here have affected modern photographic methods and our concepts of photography. In a sense, these images are the dinosaur bones of modern photography.See the truth, the beauty, and the pain!There is a newer version available on Amazon. Just do a search. The reproductions are 1000x better. The only thing I dislike is that all the articles in Camera Work are not included.a great reference for myself as a photographer and for my students. Wonderful examples of turn of century innovative photographic techniques and comments by the author.Excellent value for money.Alfred Stieglitz hat in den USA zugleich die "moderne" Kunst und die Fotogrfrie als Kunst hoffähig gemacht. Dieses Buch ist ein Reprint der von ihm herausgegebenen Zeitschrift Camera Work. Sie zeigt, dass bei allem Bemühen und trotz vieler sehr guter Bilder, der Weg, die Fotografie durch Nachahmung der Malerei, selbst zur Kunst zu erheben, eine Sackgasse war.So widmeten sich die beiden letzten Ausgaben der Zeitschrift denn auch Paul Strand, der mit einer neuen, eher an der Realität orientierten Fotografie arbeitete und damit der Fotografie einen neuen Weg ebnete.