|
 |
|
The Face of Minnesota John Szarkowski |
|
|
Commemorate Minnesota’s first 150 years with this gorgeous photographic classic. Originally commissioned to commemorate Minnesota’s centennial in 1958 and out of print for nearly forty years, The Face of Minnesota is a lost masterpiece of photography and an eloquent tribute to the people and places of the North Star state. Republished in celebration of the state’s sesquicentennial, this beautifully produced edition includes contemporary essays about John Szarkowski’s impact on American photography and introduces his work to new generations of Minnesotans. Featuring more than 175 arresting photographs as well as essays filled with wit and affection, The Face of Minnesota opens with this statement: “This book is about Minnesota now. But as a mature man carries on his face and in his bearing the history of his past, so does the look of a place today show its past-what it has been and what it has believed in.” Though Minnesota has changed dramatically during the past fifty years, The Face of Minnesota reveals the simple beauty of the imprint of the past and its deep resonance today. “Ducks in a stream, the bridge at St. Anthony Falls, streets of cities and towns, a fish in a net, the glittering lakes seen under low skies. The Face of Minnesota is a fresh, simple, unpretentious statement of a place and time by people who know what Minnesota is because they live there.” —Minor White, Aperture, 1958 “John Szarkowski is the single most important curator that photography has ever had. Looking at his photographs created over the last fifty years makes me want to weep. They are truly American pictures; one feels his desire to show not just what America was but what it still can be.” —Ingrid Sischy, Vanity Fair, 2005 “It is a triumph. A triumph not only because it captures in pictures and words the look and tone of Minnesota at a particular moment in time—the 1950s—but because it probes so deeply into the sinew and fiber of the people, lays bare the rugged bounty of the landscape, and articulates the stoic dreams that mark us as Minnesotans. His book is 50 years old and as fresh and welcome as dawn.” —Mary Abbe, Star Tribune “Szarkowski has been able to create a unique marriage of poetic essays and photographic images to capture this northern state’s history. He draws in readers immediately.” —Foreword Magazine John Szarkowski (1925–2007) was director of the photography program at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he transformed our understanding of the art of photography through influential exhibitions and books, including Looking at Photographs (1973). In 2005 his work was surveyed in a traveling exhibition, accompanied by the book John Szarkowski: Photographs. Verlyn Klinkenborg joined the editorial board of the New York Times in 1997. He is the author of several works, including The Rural Life. Richard Benson has worked as a photographer and printer since 1966. He teaches at Yale University and is the coauthor, with John Szarkowski, of A Maritime Album: 100 Photographs and Their Stories. 320 pages | 180 b&w photos, 24 color photos | 8 1/2 x 12 | 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS Publisher's Note A Technical Note Afterword by Richard Benson |
||
$49.95 cloth/jacket