Perpetual Mirage: Photographic Narratives of the Desert West

The catalogue for an unprecedented exhibition opening in June 1996 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Perpetual Mirage is the first fully illustrated history of the desert West and the first full-scale study of one of the most distinctive American publishing traditions - the photographic book. Since the mid-19th century, photographs of the American Southwest - its towering mountains, majestic canyons, and unusual wildlife - have been presented to the public primarily in books. These photographic books enabled the images to speak directly to the viewer. In the hands of the early photographic pioneers, the photograph functioned as a tool of scientific exploration, promoted commercial (and political) development of the West, and educated and thrilled people who would never visit the exotic and remote sites captured by the camera. In later years, the masterful photographs of artists such as Ansel Adams contributed to the definition of photography as an independent artistic medium. Even more important, these landscape photographers helped raise public consciousness about the region's fragility and its essential role in a vital, interlocking ecosystem. The photographic legacy of the American Southwest includes the magnificent survey albums of the mid-19th century, through which most Americans first saw the region's exotic plants, ancient cliff dwellings, and natural wonders; turn-of-the-century ethnographic reports, most notably, The North American Indian project of Edward S. Curtis; illustrated travel guides such as those by Edward Weston; books by Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter, which marshaled the environmental movement; and the photo-text documents of Dorothea Lange.

Arts & Photography

Castleberry, May

Photography & Video

Whitney Museum/Abrams

The New World's Old World: Photographic Views of Ancient America showcases the remarkable work of photographers who have captured the archaeological landscapes of ancient American cultures from the dawn of photography to the current day. Through essays and descriptive entries on specific sites, the volume demonstrates how photography serves science by conserving structures and masterpieces of the Americas' past, in addition to being an independent artistic medium. Included are works by nineteenth century explorers such as Désiré Charnay, William Henry Jackson, and Timothy O'Sullivan; scientific documentation by Alfred Maudslay; modernist visions by Josef Albers, Martín Chambi, Edward Weston, and Laura Gilpin; contemporary work by Marilyn Bridges, Javier Hinojosa, and Edward Ranney. Their photographs and essays reflect a diversity of approaches. 
Most of the places shown here have been inhabited continuously since contact or rebuilt over ancient sites. Where some nineteenth-century photographers uncovered jumbles of stone smothered in vegetation, their successors contemplated sites altered by excavation, restoration, earthquakes and floods, vandalism, and the encroachment of settlements that obscure or obliterate ancient structures.
May Castleberry is the editor of a series of artist's books published by The Museum of Modern Art. She has organized the Whitney Museum's exhibition, "Perpetual Mirage: Photographic Narratives of the Desert West," and its accompanying catalogue. Kathleen Howe is Curator of Prints and Photographs, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque. Martha A. Sandweiss is professor of American studies and history, Amherst College, Amherst, MA. She was previously Curator of Photographs at the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX. Edward Ranney has been internationally recognized for his photographs of pre-Columbian art and architecture. He resides in Santa Fe, NM. Georgia de Havenon is an art historian whose fields of study range from Andean textiles to comic books. Active in the preservation of Bolivian archaeological sites, she is the coauthor of Krazy Kat: The Art of George Herriman.

The New World's Old World: Photographic Views of Ancient America

Sandweiss, Martha A.

Ranney, Edward

Howe, Kathleen Stewart

de Havenon, Georgia

University of New Mexico Press

"The history of the photographic book goes back well more than a century; the medium of photography and the book format were understood very early on to relate to each other on both technical and aesthetic levels. The examples of truly great combinations of photographic image and text, great design and typography bound together as books are numerous, and make up an impressive artistic, social, and documentary statement of the 20th century. Writer and rare book expert Andrew Roth has selected for this volume a group of 101 of the best photography books ever published: books that bring all of the elements of great bookmaking together to create, ultimately, a thing of beauty, a work of art. Mostly made up of publications in which the photographs were meant to be seen in book form, as opposed to the book being merely a repository of images, this list includes many artists and titles that will be familiar to the collector, but also not a few surprises. Chronologically, the first book is Volume One of Edward Curtis's seminal 1907 The North American Indian, the last is David LaChapelle's LaChapelle Land from 1996, and in between are books by Walker Evans and Berenice Abbott, Atget and Brassai, Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand, and many other seminal photographers from all over the world. Each book in the catalogue will receive a double page spread which will include publication information, several image spreads, and a short text about it. The Book of 101 Books, however, is far more than simply an annotated and illustrated catalogue. Six important new essays on a variety of related topics from respected scholars, critics, and artists are included as well: here you will find Richard Benson on the history of printing techniques, Shelley Rice on the societal significance of photography books, May Castleberry on reprints, exhibitions, and keeping books alive for the public; Daido Moriyama on his personal memories of making his classic Bye Bye Photography, Dear, Neville Wakefield on the particular attributes of one of the most recent books in this group: Richard Prince's 1995 Adult Comedy Action Drama, and Jeffrey Fraenkel on the myriad perils of publishing photography books. The catalogue entries themselves are written by the well known critics Vince Aletti and David Levi Strauss. Taken together, the depth and beauty of these essays and images will make The Book of 101 Books both an essential reference and an aesthetically compelling object."

Book of 101 Books, The: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century, LIMITED EDITION

Benson, Richard

Rice, Shelley

Wakefield, Neville

Levi Strauss, David

Roth Horowitz, LLC

"The history of the photographic book goes back well more than a century; the medium of photography and the book format were understood very early on to relate to each other on both technical and aesthetic levels. The examples of truly great combinations of photographic image and text, great design and typography bound together as books are numerous, and make up an impressive artistic, social, and documentary statement of the 20th century. Writer and rare book expert Andrew Roth has selected for this volume a group of 101 of the best photography books ever published: books that bring all of the elements of great bookmaking together to create, ultimately, a thing of beauty, a work of art. Mostly made up of publications in which the photographs were meant to be seen in book form, as opposed to the book being merely a repository of images, this list includes many artists and titles that will be familiar to the collector, but also not a few surprises. Chronologically, the first book is Volume One of Edward Curtis's seminal 1907 The North American Indian, the last is David LaChapelle's LaChapelle Land from 1996, and in between are books by Walker Evans and Berenice Abbott, Atget and Brassai, Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand, and many other seminal photographers from all over the world. Each book in the catalogue will receive a double page spread which will include publication information, several image spreads, and a short text about it. The Book of 101 Books, however, is far more than simply an annotated and illustrated catalogue. Six important new essays on a variety of related topics from respected scholars, critics, and artists are included as well: here you will find Richard Benson on the history of printing techniques, Shelley Rice on the societal significance of photography books, May Castleberry on reprints, exhibitions, and keeping books alive for the public; Daido Moriyama on his personal memories of making his classic Bye Bye Photography, Dear, Neville Wakefield on the particular attributes of one of the most recent books in this group: Richard Prince's 1995 Adult Comedy Action Drama, and Jeffrey Fraenkel on the myriad perils of publishing photography books. The catalogue entries themselves are written by the well known critics Vince Aletti and David Levi Strauss. Taken together, the depth and beauty of these essays and images will make The Book of 101 Books both an essential reference and an aesthetically compelling object.   In order to insure safe delivery for this item we can only ship Federal Express 3rd Day. An additional charge of $25.00 will be added to your purchase.   "

Book of 101 Books, The: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century, Deluxe Edition

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