The Nature of Photographs

By Stephen Shore A Primer

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Tn The Nature of Photographs, Stephen Shore explores ways of understanding and ]ooking at all types of photographs - from iconic images to found pictures, negatives to digital fí]es. Based on Shorers many years of teaching photography at Bard College, New York State, this book serves as an indispensable tool for students, teachers and everyone who wants to take better pictures or learn to ]_ook at them in a more informed wav.

As we]l as a selection of shorers own work, The }trature of Photographs contains images from throughout the history of photograph;r, from works by the fathers of photography such as Alfred Stieglitz and walker Evans to that of artists working with the medium today such as Co]lier Schorr and Thomas Struth. rt covers a range of genres, such as street photography, fine art photography and documentary photography, as well as images by unknown photographers, be they in the form of an old snapshot or an aerial photograph taken as part of a geographical survey. Together with his clear, intelligent and accessible text, shore uses these works to demonstrate how the world in front of the camera is transformed into a photograph.

Jacket iL}ustration: Kenneth Josephson New york state !,97 0 The Nature of Photographs phaidon press Limited Regent's Wharf A11 Sain]:s Slreet London Nt 9PA

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Second edition (revised, expanded and redesigned) @ 2a07 Phaidon Press Limited Reprinled 20O7 First edilion published by The Johns Hopkins University Press

ISBN 97B 0 71,4B 1585 2

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Design and Typeface by A2/SW/HK printed in china The Nature of Photographs

By Stephen Shore Contents

7 The Nature of Photographs

!.5 The Physical Level

37 The Depictive Level

97 The Mental Level

!.17 MenLal Modell ing

|.34 Picture Credi]:s !,35 Index of Arlists L36 AcknowLedgements Robert Frank View from Hotel Window - Bulte, Montana L954-56

ó The Nature of Photographs The Nature of Photographs

How is this photograph different from the actua] scene that Robert Frank saw"as he stood in his Butte hotel room and looked out on this depressed mining town in the northern Rockies? How much of this image is a product of 1enses, shutters, and media?'M/hat are the characteristics of photography that establish how an image looks?

The Nature of Phoiographs 7 This book explores v/ays of understanding John Gossage the nature of photographs; that is, how Romance Industry # 175 photographs function; and not only the !,99B most elegant or gracefu1 photographs, but all photographs made with a camera and printed directly from the negative or a digital file. A1} photographic prints have qualities in common. These qualities determine how the world in front of the camera is transformed into a photograph; they also form the visua] grammar that elucidates the photograph's meaning.

B The Nature of Photographs The Nature of Photographs 9

n[lilll |||l| |||||| ,.,r, "f," A photograph can be viewed on several Dieter AppeLt ]evels. To begin with, it is a physical The Mark on the Mirror object, a print. 0n this print is an Thal Breathin8 Makes image, an illusion of a window on to the !,97 7 world. Tt is on this level that we usually read a picture and discover its content: a souvenir of an exotic land, the face of a lover, a wet rock, a landscape at night. Embedded in this level is another that contains signals to our mind's perceptual apparatus. Tt gives (spin'to what the image depicts and how it is organized.

tO The Nature of Photographs :,

The Nature of Photograpns l rt The aim of this book then is not to explore Walker Evans photographic content, but to describe physical and Fami]y Snapshots ín formal attributes of a. photographic print that form the tools a Hale Coun:iJa photographer uses to define and interpret A]abama that content. L936

12 l The Nature of Photographs The Na]:ure of Photographs 13 Anonymous Ca"r by roadside Date unknown

t4 The Physica} Level The Physica1 Leve]

A photographic print is, in most instances, a base of paper, plastic, or metal that has been coated with an emu]sion of light-sensitive metallic salts or meta]lic salts coupled with vegetable or metal]ic dyes. Tn some prints, the base is coated directly with or imprinted with dyes, pigments, or carbon. A photograph is flat, it has edges, and it is static; it doesnrt move. 'V/hile it is flat, it is not a true plane. The print has a physical dimension.

The Physica,1 Level | 15 Th ese nh vsical and chemical attributes Stephen Shore form the boundaries that circumscribe Luzzara, Italy, !-993 the nature of the photograph. These atrribules impress lh emselves upon the photographic image. The physical qualities of the print determine some of the visual qualities of the image. The flatness of the photographic paper establishes the plane of the picture. The edges of the print demand the boundedness of the pícture. The staticness of the image determines the experience of time in the photograph. Even the image of a photograph on a computer monitor is flat, static, and bounded. The type of black and-white emulsion determines the hue and tonal range of the print. The type of base determines the texture of the print.

L6 ] The Physical Level

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The PhysicaL Leve1 | t7 Co]our expands a photographrs palette Anne Turyn and adds a ne\M level of descriptive !,2ct7cL96a information and transparenc.y to the From image. Tt is more transparent because (FLashbu]b \4emories' one is stopped less by the surface - colour L9B6 is more ]ike how we see. It has added description because it shows the colour of light and the colours of a culture or an age. While made in the 19BOs, the palette of this image by Anne Turyn seems to date the picture a generation earlier.

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The Physical Level l9 Slephen Shore Room 2B, Holiday Tnn Medicine Hat. Alberta August 18, 1974

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The Physical Level | 21 Stephen Shore Amarillo. Texas

22 The Physical LeveL Thomas Demand Sink/Spůle !,997

The PhysicaL Level 23 The tonal range of a black and-white Richard Benson print is affected by the type of emulsion Untitled the print is made with. The composition Date unknown of the film emulsion, the chernistry of the film and print developers, and the nature of the right source from which the print was rnade also determine the way shadows, mid tones, and highrights are described by the print; they determine how many shades of grey the print contains and whether these tones are compressed or separated.

This reproduction of a prinl by Richard Benson has an exceptionally long tonal scale with subtle, clear, beautiful separation of the Low vaLues. The original print is acryLic paint applied to aluminium. It was produced from eight halftone separations made from the origina1 negative.

2 Th^ Ph"ls, ,a - ,ó Je The Physica1 Levet | 25 As an object, a photograph has its Anonymous v/ltn apples own life in the world. It can be saved old man in a shoebox or in a museum. It can 'rr" "*""-" be reproduced as information or as an advertisement. It can be bought and sold.. It may be regarded as a utilitarian object or as a work of art. The context in which a photograph is seen effects the meaníngs a viewer draws írom it,

26 ] The Physical LeveL The Physical Level|27 Cindy Sherman Untit]ed Film Stil]

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The Physical Level | 29 T. H. 0'SuLlivan U.S. GeologicaL Survey Historic Spanish Record Longitudina], parabo]ic, oť the Conquest, South and transverse dunes Side oí Inscription Rock, on Garces Mesa Coconino New Mexico County, Arizona, Lat LB73 35'39'N; long 1tO"55'W Photograph scaLe: 1:54,0OO, Feb. 19th !-954

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ó2 l The Physica,l Leve1 I The Physica1 Level óó By consciously adopting a visual style, Wa]ker Evans a photographer can reference this B-d, o- an| fa rn ho .so context and bring these meanings to Ha]e County, A]abama -Walker the reading of the image, as Evans did when he made this photograph in, what he called, (documentary style'.

34 l The Physical Level The Physica1 Leve] 35 Andrew Moore Burger King, Governor's Island, New Tork 200 3

Lisa kereszi Burger King, Governor's Island, New York 2aa3

36 l The Depictive Level The Depictive LeveI

Photography is inherent]y an analytic -Where discipline. a painter starts with a blank canvas and builds a picture, a photographer starts with the messiness of the world and se]ects a picture. A photographer standing before houses and streets and people and trees and artifacts of a cu]ture imposes an order on the scene - simpJ_ifies the jumble by giving it structure. He or she imposes this order by choosing a vantage point, choosing a frame, choosing a moment of exposure, and by selecting a plane of focus.

Ih^ D.p..r'v- |eve J 'Walker Evans The photographic image depicts, within \4ining Town, certain ťormal constrairrts, an aspect West Virginia oí the world. This photograph by Evans !.936 depicts a store, gas pumps ) a car, a road, hit]s and houses, sky. Tt also depicts receding space.

The formal character oí the image is a resu].t of a range of physical and optical factors. These are the factors that define the nhvsical level of the photograph, But on the depictive level there are four central ways in which the world in front of the camera is transformed into the photograph: flatness, ťrame, time, and focus.

These four attributes deíine the picture's depictive content and structure, They ťorm the basis of a photograph's visual grammar. They a]]e responsible for a snapshooter's 6mistakes': a blur, a behead.ing, a jumble, an awkward moment. They are the means by which photographers express their sense of the world., give structure to their perceptions and articulation to their meanings,

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The Depiclive Level ó9 C. E. [latkins of transformation The íirst means CastLe Rock, CoLumbia is three- is flatness. The world River" L867 d,imensional; a photographíc image js lwo-dimensjonal , Because of thjs flatness, the d,epth of depictive space always bears a relationship to the picr,ure pJane. The piccr,,rc plane is a field upon which the lens's image is projected. A photographic image can rest on this picture plane and, at the same time, contain an illusion of deep space.

FLatness 40 l The Depictive Level: The Depiclive LeveL: FLalness l 4t Lee FriedLander Photographs have (with the exception KnoxviLLe, T"1."ry§ of stereo pictures) monocular vision L97 |" - one d.efinite vantage point, They do not have the depth perception that our binocular vision affords us, when three-dimensional space is projected monocularIy on to a plane, relationships are created that d-id not exist before the picture was taken. Things in the back of the picture are brought into juxtaposition with things in the front, Any change in the vantage point results in a change in the relationships. Anyone who has closed one eye, held, a finger in ťront of his or her face, and then switched eyes knows that even this two-inch cha,nge in vantage point can produce a dramatic difference in visual relationships,

To say that new relationships are created does not mean that the yield sign and cloud jn rhis pholograph by Lee Friedlanderwere not there in front of the camera, but that ],he visual relationship between them, the cloud sitting like cotton candy on top of the sign, is a product of photographic vision,

FLatness 42 l The Depictive Leve]: The Depictive Leve]: Flatness 43 Some photographs are opaque. Thomas struth The viewer is stopped by the Paradise 9 picture plane. (Xi Shua"ng Banna"), yunnan province Chína !-999

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+4 ] rne Depictive Leve].: Flatness The Depiclive Level: FLatness | 45 Thomas struih Some photographs are transparent, Pa,ntheon. Rome ']''i. a rr j errrer i s d.ra V/n thrOUgh l990 the surface into the illusion oí lh e image.

Level: FLatness 46 l The Depictive

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The Depictive Leve]: F]atness 47 In the ťield, outside the controlled André kerlósz coníines of a studio, a photographer is Dubo, Dubon, confronted with a complex web of visual Dubonnel, Paris, 19ó4 juxtapositions that realign themselves with each step the photographer takes. Take one step and something hidden comes into view; take another and an object in the ťront now presses up against one in the distance. Take one step and the d.escription of deep space is clarified; take anolner and it is obscured.

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52 The Depictive Level: F]atness Nicholas Nixon In bringing order to this situation, Friendly, a photographer solves a picture, Wesl Virginia", more than composes one. L982

The Depictive Level: Flatness | 53 The next transformative element Robert Adams is the frame. A photograph has edges; C]ear cut a]ong the world does not. The edges separate the Nehalem River what is in the picture from what Til]amook Couniy, is not. Robert Adams could airn his 0regon camera down a little bit and to the 1,97 6 right, include a railroad track in this pholograph of a partially clear-cut Western landscape, and send a chilling reverberation through the image's content and meaning.

54 The Depiciive Leve]: Frame The Depictive Level: Frarne | 55 The frame corra]s the content of the Aaron Diskin photograph al] at once. The objects, The Shadow people, events, or forms that are in !,995 the forefront of a photographerrs attention when making the fine framing decisions are the recipients of the ťrame's emphasis. The frame resonates off them and, in turn, draws lhe viewerrs attention to thern.

Just as monocular vision creates juxtapositions of lines and shapes within the image, edges create relationships between these lines and shapes and the frame. The re]ationships that the edges create are both visua] and (contentualr.

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The Depictive Level: Frame l 57 The men in the foreground of this He]en Levilt photograph by Helen Levitt bear a New York

visual relationship not only to each ^ 4 aLE. other, but also to the lines of the frame. The frame energizes the space around the ťigures. These formal qualities unite the disparate action of this picture, the seated man with his stolid stare, the languid dialogue of the two on the left, and the streetwise angularity of the central figure, ínto the jazzy cohesion of L940s New York Citv street ]ife.

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The Depictive LeveL: Fra"me | 59 $,/i}liam Eggleston For some pictures the frame acts UntitLed passively. It is where the picture ends, c. L97a The structure of the picture begins within the image and works its way out to the frame.

As the street in this photograph by V,/illiam Eggleston leads to a pine wood beyond the sub-d_ivision's boundaries, so the photograph's structure implies a world continuing beyond its edges,

60 l The Depictive Level: Frame The Depictive Level: Frame | 61 I

For some pictures the frame is active. Slephen Shore The structure of the picture begins El Pa,so Sireet, with the frame and works inward. El Paso. Texas t 975

'M/hile we know that the buildings, sidewalks, and sky continue beyond the edges of this urban landscape, the world of the photograph is contained. within the frame. Tt is not a fragment of a larger wor]d.

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llilillil Japanese woodblock prints use the Toyokrrni III (Kunisada) frame in a wa.y that is more reminiscent S.^,- fro.r a Kab,k' plaJ of photographs than of Western painting. c. t85O It has been suggested that this was a resu]t of the Eastern scroil tradition - seeing the infinitely variable croppings that occu,_r when viewing a scroll as it is roLled from hand to hand. Perhaps by examining what gives these prints their sense of photographic framing we can clarify what photographic framing is.

Notice hoq in the upper right of the picture, the frame gives emphasis to the angel's hand staying the sword. The angel is described with the greatest economy: the artist has given the least information needed ťor us to read this being as an angel. There is something slyly wonderíu] about our ability to make an interpretation based on this m i n ima l descri pL_ on.

Now, notice the leg jutting into the image frorn the lower right. It is really arnazing that the artist chose to add this. It doesn't relate to any of the action in the picture. It is enlirely extraneous. 11, typiíies the sort of seemingly arbitrary cropping that occurs when the frame of a photograph slices through the world. V,/hile it doesn't relate to the uníolding drama of the picture, it does imply that this drama is a part of a larger world.

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The Depictive Leve]: Frame ] 69 Two factors affect time in a photograph: Larry Fink the duration of the exposure and the Studio 54, New York staticness of the final image. Just as a City, May 1977 three-dimensional world is transformed when it is projected on to a f]at piece of film, so a fluid world is transformed when it is projected on to a static piece of film. The exposure has a duration, what John Szarkowski in The Photographer's Eye called (a discrete parcel of time'. The duration of the exposure could be ...

one ten thousandth of a second ...

Frozen tirne: an exposlrre oť short duration, cutting across the grain of time, generating a ne-w moment.

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lll]lilililllililil|]lI or two SeCondS ... Línda connor SLeeping Baby, Extrusive time: the movement occurring Kathmandu, Nepa], 19B0 in front of the camera, or movement of the camera itself, accurnulating on the film, producing a blur.

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lll llllll I llll rlllll |lll l ll ::;l l l Il lll| l .,. or six minutes. Edward weston Pepper, l9ó0 still time: the content is at rest and time is still.

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ll|]llil]llll illilllilill]ilffi lil]il]ili]ilili]ill]ili]llili Focus is the fourth major transformation P. H. Emerson ol the world into a photograph. Not During lhe Reed Harvest only does a camera see 1nonocularly from tBB 6 a deťinite vantage point; it also creates a hierarchy in the depictive space by defining a single plane of íocus. This plane, which is usually parallel wilh the picture plane, gives emphasis to part of the picture and helps to distil a photograph's subject írorn its content.

In this photograph by P. I{. Emerson, the shallo-w area in íocus - the image's depth of field - draws the víewer's awareness immediately to the three reed harvesters in the foreground. It isolates them from the fourth harvester and from the marshes in the background. The plane of íocus acts as the edge of our attention cutting through the scene.

B2 The Depictive Leve]: Focus

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ililllilllililil llffi lililllilillilillillilillilliliill]iill]iiliill] Examine this photograph by Robert Robert Adams Theater and. Adams. Move your attention from the Outd.oor Mountain bottom edge, back through the parking Cheyenne L968 lot, to the movie screen. From the screen, move your attention to the mountain to its right and from there to the sky,

Follow the same path through the picture, but now be aware that as your eye moves back through the parking lot - as your attention recedes through the depictive space - you have a sensatíon oť changing íocus, yoL^r eyes focusi ng p-ogressiveJy íurther away.

Notice that as your attention moves frorn the screen to the mountain there is Little or no change of focus.

Notice that as your attention moves from the mountain to the sky there is a shift oť focus, but now, instead oí moving back, your focus is seemingly moving forward, coming closer.

NoL,ice rhat rhe dj rection and speed of your relocusing is not tied to the recession in depictive space. The clouds may be further away than the movie screen, but your íocus moves closer,

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ililililillilll l|ffiLililllililllffiffi Examine this photograph by Robert Robert Ada"ms Adams. Move your attention frorn the outdoor Theater and bottom edge, back through the parking Cheyenne Mountain lot, to the movie screen. From the screen, L968 move your attention to the mountain to its right and from there to the sky,

Follow the same path through the picture, but now be aware that as your eye moves back through the parking lot - as your attention recedes through the depictive space - you have a sensation of changing focus, your eyes focusing progressively ťurther away.

Notice that as your attention moves from the screen to the mountain there is little or no change of íocus.

Notice that as your attention moves from the mountain to the sky there is a shift oí focus, but now, instead of moving back, your focus is seemingly moving forward, corning closer.

Notice that the direction and speed of your refocusing is not tied to the recession in depictive space. The clouds may be ťurther away than the movi e screen, but your focus moves Closer.

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You see a mental image - a mental pictures exist on a mental ]evel that construction when you read this page, may be coincident with the depictive or look at a photograph, or see anything level - what the picture is showing - else in the world. your focus even shifts but does not rnirror it. The mental when reading this picture by Paul ]evel elaborates, refines, and Caponigro. But your eyes don't actually embellishes our perceptions of the refocus (since you are only looking at a depictive level. The mental ]evel of ťlat page). Tt is your mind that changes a photograph provides a frarnework focus within your mental image of the for the menta] image we construct picture, with all the attendant sensations oť (and for) the picture. of refocusing your eyes. It is your menta1 focus that is shifting.

Light reflecting off this page is focused by the lenses in your eyes on to your retinas. They send electrical impulses along the optic nerves to your cerebral cortex. There your brain interprets these impulses and constructs a mental image.

This, surprisinglg is an acquired ability. Patients who have had their eyesight restored after having been blind from birth at first see only light. They have to learn how to construct a menta] image.

The Menta] LeveL 97

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lllilililllffiffillffiffillilil il]ililiilill]ffi lililiilllffi ffi iiltffi l]iilt]iili]i ]lli In this Walker Evans photograph 'WaLker Evans track your focus through the space Gas Station, F-eedsvi]le of the picture. Mlesl Virginial t936

Look at the sky in relation to the rest of the picture.

Unlike the Adams photograph of the drive-in theatre where the sky moved forward, the sky here appears to float on a diťferent plane, as though it were cut out from a different picture, as lhough it were a collage. This collaging appears when there is a difference in the degree of attention a photographer pays to different parts of the picture. For this to happen, the photographer needs to pay intense, clear, heightened attention to one part of the picture, but not to another.

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,lffi||""' llilllillll Garry Vlinogrand clarity of Garry The crystallíne WorLd's Fair, awareness of a photograph Winogrand,'s New York City, 1o64 cutting through motion and time makes this image oí people interacting on quality a bench absolutely riveting, The and intensity of a photographer's attention leave their imprint on the mental level oí the photograph, This does not happen by magic,

A photographer's basic formal tools for defining the content and organization of a picture are vantage point, frame, focus, and. time. What a photographer pays attention to governs these decisions auto- (be they conscious, intuitive, or the matic). These decisions resonate with clarity of the photographer's attention, They conform to the photographer's mental organízaŤ,ion - the visual gestalt - of the picture,

Tf you right now become aware oť the space between yourselí and this your pagel there is a transmutation of attention and perception, This sort of perceptual change - this modification oí the mental image - would, for a photographer, lead to a realignment of his or her forma} decisions in making a photograph,

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t{2 l The Mental Level I- WiLLiam Eggleston Unlitled c. !,97 0

The Menta] Leve] 11ó Emmet Gowin 'Wadi Sivap,h Petra Jordan, 1982

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116 MentaL Modelling

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The mental levelrs genesis is in the Earlier r suggested that you become photographerrs menta1 organization aware of the space between you and of the photograph. V/hen photographers the page in this book. That caused arL take pictures, they hold mentar rno.le]s alteration oť your mental model. You can in their mínds; models that are tre :es:l,| add to this awareness by being mindful, oť the proddings of insight, conci,_cll_ng, r_ghi now, of yourself sitting in your and comprehens,i on of th- wor_c. :h:._::, its back pressing against your s1-1e. To this you can add an awarelless At one extreme, the model is rig_i a:_l ci:le sounds in your room. And a]l the ossified, bound by -.=:_le, an accumui:_tiol oj _:s as you]] awa]]eness is shifting and conditioning: a photographer recog.__z:s ;-:,;: lleriia] model is metamorphosing, only subjects that fit the mod.eL, o:l ;-]- :,r]e :eading this book, seeing these structures pictures only in acco:lCar_c: -.-.-_]]];- - -,ar3"3- t".ordS, which are only with the model. A rudimentary ex:,:1_1_- _:_'l.- ::_ tapel, the ink depicting a series of this is a mental ťilter that perr:_:s :i i,_:_:l;,- __t.ie symbols whose meaning only sunsets to pass through. At lre o:.,.: _s ::l_-,-:;ea cn the menlal leve]. And extreme, the j_:_i. model is supple anC ,__ ::_: .,,;|--el as your framework of readily accommodating and adjus:i::: -;.:ll-::stalClng shiťts, you continue to new perceptions. :c :::a j :.ld to contemplate the nature :i l:l_c:cgraphs. For most photographers, the mode, operates unconsciously. But, by mak_l_g the model conscious, the photoglap]]er] brings it and the mental level of ;he photograph under his or her controi.

MenlaL Modelling ] 117

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l|lililililil|lffi lililiillffi iillllilillililiill]il]l ll]i Frederick sommer V,^g'-aror,i,] dll:., St. Anne and the Inťa"ni St. John,1966

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i, i,,'t I t li t tttlltitttilttt Each level oí a photograph is determined Eugěne Atget by attributes of the previous level. 0rienla"] Poppy The print provides the physica,| Date unknown framework ťor the visual parameters of the photographic image. The ťormal decisions, which themselves are a product oť the nature oť that image, ar:e the tools the mental model uses to impress itselť upon the picture. Each ]evel provides the foundation the next level builds upon. At the same time, each reflects back, enlarging the scope and meaning of the one on which it rests. The mental level provides counterpoint to the depictive theme. The photographic image turns a piece of paper into a seductive illusion or a moment oť truth and beauty.

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\,4erraI Mod, ,irgll3' -When Stephen Shore T make a photograph: mJ Yucatan, Mexico L990 perceptions feed into my mental model. My model adjusts to accommodate my perceptions (leading me to change my photographic decisions), This modelling ad justment alters, in turn, my perceptions, And so on. It is a dynamic, self-modifying process. It is what an engineer would call a íeedback loop,

It is a complex, ongoing, spontaneous interaction of observation, understanding, imagination, and intention,

1J2|}"4,n'aL Voo" 1'ng Menta] ModelLing l t33 picture credits _/ 6 Copyrigh]: Robert Zeke Berrnan, courlesy ROSS, couriesy ťaťe/ l2O Courlesy Fazal Frank, from (The Laurence Mil]er Gal}ery, MacGill GaLLery, New Sheikh; l2t O Frederick Americans), courlesy New York; 52 3 Courtesy York; 93 O Vik Muniz & Frances Sommer Pace/MacGilL Gallery, Fraenke1 GalLery, San and lhe Estate of Hans Foundation; l23 New York; 9 Copyright Francisco; 55 Courtesy Námulh/VAGA, NY, Co]lection of Stephen Jo'n Gossag"! l' CaJe-', Fraenke] GalLery, San courtesy Fortes Vilaga and Grngel Ďnole; rZ+ Rudolf Kicken. Courtesy Francisco; 57 Courtesy GaLLery, Sikkema, O Die Pholographische of Dieler Appett; l3 Aaron Diskin; 59 O Jenkins&Co.&Xippas SammLung/SK Stiítung Library oí Congress; He]en Levitt, courtesy Gallery; 94 O Black Kultur August Sander t4 Col]ection of Stephen Laurence MiLLer Gallery, River Productions, Archiv, Cologne1 DACS, and Ginger Shore; l7 New York; 6í O 2006 Ltd/Mitch Epsle,n; London, 2aa6; !.25 Courtesy 303 GalLery, Eggleston Artistic Trust, 95 Courlesy Guido Courtesy Murray Guy, New York; L9 Photo copy couriesy Cheim and Guidi;96 Copyrighl New York; l26 Courtesy right 1986 O Anne Read, New York. Used PauL Caponigro. Used Jeff WaLl; 1-27 a 2aa6 Turyn; 20 Courtesy ó03 with permission. ALL by perrnission; 99 The J. Eggleston Artistic Trust, Gallery, New York; 21 rights reserved; 6ó PauL Getty Museum; tOt courtesy Cheim and Courlesy of lhe ariist Courtesy 3O3 Gallery, The J. Paul Getty F,ead, New York. Used and Luhring Augustine, New York; 66 Copyright Museum; !-a2 ó a with permission. ALL rights reserved; \-w lorx1 22 Co,r'^sJ of the artist, courtesy Frederick & Frances ,. 3O3 GaLlery, New York; Anthony ReynoLds Sommer Foundalion1 B Co "r--sJ Fra^nk^ 23 Courlesy of lhe arlist Gallery; 67 Copyrighi, tO5 BereniceAbbott/ GaLlery, San Francisco; and JOó Gallery, New PhiLip Lorca diCorcia, Commerce Graphics Ltd, 129 @ Kenneth York;25 Courtesy courl:esy Pace/MacGiLL Inc; 107 Copyright Parrl Josephson, courtesy Richa"rd Benson; 27 Gal}ery, New York; Caponigro. Used Rhona Hoťfma"n Gallery, CoLLection oť Slephen and óB-9 Copyright Richard by permission; t09 Chicago; 1óO Courtesy Ginger Shore; 2B Prince. Photos: Davio Library of Congress1 Tim Davis; 131 Courlesy of ihe artist Regen, Courtesy 1tt O The Estate Copyright Andreas and Meiro pictures G]adstone Gallery, oť Garry WinograncL. Gursky, courlesy Monika Gallery; 30 George New York; 7t O The Courtesy Fraenkel Sprůth /Phi}omene Estate of Garry GaLlery, San Francisco1 Magers1 tó3 Courtesy Eastma"n House; ó1 U.S. 'Winogrand, Geologica} Survey1 32 courtesy :]_t2 The J. Paul Gelty 303 Gallery, New York; John Courlesy 3O3 GalLery, Fraenke] GaLlery, San Museum; !-1-3 @ 2aa6 ló5 Copyright _r New York; 33 Courlesy of Francisco; 73 Courtesy lgg_^s,on A _sl'- TrusL. Szarkowski. Courtesy Bernd and HiLla Becher; Larry Fink; 75 Courtesy courtesy Cheim and Pace/MacGi1l Ga"LLery, 35 Library of Congress; Linda Connor; 77 Read, New York. Used New York. 36 top O Andrew L. Co]]ection Center for with permission. A]l rights reserved; ll4 Moore/courtesy Yancey Creative Pholography -ooy-igJ" Richardson GaLLery1 ó6 O19B1 Arizona Board of Fm,"- ard boltom Courtesy of the Regents; 7B Courtesy Tod Edith Gowin, Courtesy artist and Yancey Papageorge; 79 Courtesy Pace/MacGiLL GaLlery, Richardson GaLlery; 39 Frank GohLke; BO O l.trew York; 1t5 @ The Library ol Congress1 4l Bortnanl/^ola,s;at Dorothea Lange The J. PauL Gelty Courtesy Michae] Collection, The OakLand Museum1 4ó Courtesy Schmidt; 83 The J. PauL Museum of California, L of OakLand. Gift -aen

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'W Abbott, Berenice Eggleston, il]iam Lé, An-My Sommer, Frederick 105 6L, LLs, !-27 L25 Laz 3, !-2!- Adams, Robert Emerson, P. H. Le Gray, Gustave Sternfeld, JoeL 55, 85 Bó !,t 2 2I

Annan, Thomas Epstein, Mitch J'evíll, Helen Stieglitz, ALfred 99 94 59 L!,6

Anonymous Evans, Wa]ker Model, Lisette Struth, Thomas L4, 27, 29, 92 L3) ó5, ó9, !-09 bL) 4+7

Appelt, Dieter Fink, Larry Moore, Andrew Szarkowski, John !,L 36 L36

Arbus, Diane Frank, Robert Mulligan, Bob Toyokuni III (Kunisada) LLB 6 B0 65

Atget, Eugěne Friedlander, Lee Muniz, Vik l o7 Turyn, Anne 43, LL9. LzB 93 !,9

Nixon, Nicho]as U.S. Geological Survey 3ó F-, z 3!-

Be}l, William H. O'Sullivan, T. H. WaLL, Jeff LoL 3a

Benson, Richard Papageorge, Tod Watkins, C. E. 78 1+ !,

Berman, Zeke Prince, Richard FÁ Weston, Edward 689 77

Brassai Ross, Judith Joy Winogrand, Garry B9 9L 7t, t !,L

Caponigro, Paul Sander, August 96, !,07 L2+

Connor, Linda Schmidt, Michae] 75 E1

Davis, Tim Schorr, Co]]ier L30 32

Demand, Thomas Sheikh, Fa,zal t20 diCorcia, Philip-Lorca Sherrnan, Cindy 67 1,ó

Diskin, Aaron Dorothea Shore, Stephen 57 L7r 2a,22, 63, Ióó A cknowledgements John szarkowski Mother 6. This book grew oul of a course I have taught l for many years at Bard Col1ege in Annanda]e- t 99B A on-Hudson, New York. When I first started I teaching lhe course, I used John Szarkowski's } The Photographer's Eye as a text and wilhout J it as a precedenl The Nalure of Photographs F would nol ha"ve been written. c) l The first dra"ft was written whi]e I was a" I feL]ow at the MacDoweLL CoLony in New Hampshire. a The combinalion of so]itude during the day and C Lively conversation at dinner heLped me keep } my focus. While there, the ea"rly stages of this I project benefited frorn the advice of Michae] T Almereyda. The present work evo]ved over severaL C years. I arn especiaLly gra"tefuL to Jarnes Enyeart, C Char]es Hagen, and George F, Thompson ol the a Center for American Places, the publisher of } lhe first incarnation of lhis book, for the time a lhey took to rnake detai]ed comments on rny manuscript. a My understanding of lhe importance of focus was stirnuLated by Amos Gunsberg. For a descriplion of lhe mechanics of seeing, T have referred lo Seeing wilh the Mind)s Eye (1975) by Mike and Nancy SamueLs.

Without the cooperation of a]L lhe photographers, gaLLeries, and instilutions who a]Lowed me to reproduce work, this book wouLd nol have been 'Weston possible. T particularly wish to thank Naef of the Getty Museum, Peter MacGill of PaceMacGiLl, and Lisa SpeL}man and Mari Spirilo oť 303 Gallery. My interest in pholography and perception conlinues to be stimu]aled by conversations with Jeff Rosenheim of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with Pielro Perona of CalTech, and with MichaeL Fried of Johns Hopkins. I have aLso learned rnuch from my coLleagues at Ba"rd CoLLege, Laurie Dah}berg, Tim Davis, Barbara Ess, Larry Fink, An My Lé, John Pilson, and Luc Sante, as weLl as from my studenls.

At Phaidon Press, I'm deepLy indebted to Arnanda Renshaw, Alex Stetter and Paul McGuinness for their wisdorn and insight throughoul the whoLe process of producing this book, to Scotl Williams and Henrik Kubel for lheir elegant design, and to Richa"rd Schlagman for his continued support.

Finally, I arn indebted to my wife, Ginger, for her council and encouragement.

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