Winslow Homer and the Camera: Photography and the Art of Painting

Winslow Homer and the Camera offers wonderful insight into both Homer's work and the influence of photography on artists of the period.While a familiarity with Homer's work would certainly have made the book even more interesting for me the discussions along with the accompanying pictures made everything quite understandable. Which is important since art and art history is not one of my strongest areas. So if you have an interest but don't have much in the way of credentials in this area this book will still be accessible and informative. I also think that for those well-versed in the topic the essays will speak to you even more since a certain foundation will allow you to grasp and make connections that likely elude me.Overall I would recommend this to anyone with a casual interest in art through to an artist or art historian with a solid background. There is plenty to engage any reader along that spectrum.Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

This book is basically two essays about Winslow Homer. The first was by Frank Goodyear, who looked at Homer's entire career with a focus on what influenced his artwork and especially at how photography influenced his art. The second essay was by Dana Byrd, who looked at how Homer captured the Bahamas, Cuba, and Florida in his art during his vacations in those areas during 1884-1886. She compared and contrasted his art with others who were painting or photographing these areas at that time. There were pages of pictures along with each essay showing the photographs and artwork that were mentioned in the essays.The essays were informative and will probably be of most interest to fans of Homer's artwork. I was curious about how photography influenced American artwork at that time, and now I know as much as I care to. However, the authors assumed a previous knowledge of Homer's overall body of artwork, which I didn't have. While I could follow the specific references since pictures were provided, I couldn't fully appreciate their comments about his work in general.I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley

Thee is no verifiable indication, unfortunately, that Winslow Homer ever had any interest in photography or ever took a photograph.

I am pleased to have this book. I enjoyed the numerous photos and reproductions of his paintings. The discussion about Homer is interesting too.The book "Winslow Homer and the Camera" shows him to be the enigma I always thought so the writers have only been able to draw inferences rather than state facts.Perhaps wrongly, I expected this book to answer the question "how much did Winslow Homer base his paintings on photos?". In fairness neither the authors or the title suggest that they would answer that question. But I do wonder if they started their research expecting to do just that.In no more than a handful of paintings have they been able to assert a direct connection, and all of those are at the start of his painting career. Examples given are Lincoln, the bust view of various state governors and Albert Post (only the last one was in colour). They can say this because there seems to be no other plausible source for these images, and secondly because they are markedly "flat". Perhaps this showed Homer the limitations of photos as a source?The writers show a slight, much more tenuous link between his Campfire and a photo by Stoddart. The composition is entirely different, but there are some features in common, namely a night scene, a figure by a campfire and a lean to shelter. So the photo was at best a loose inspiration, not a direct source.Perhaps the Campfire illlustrates that in looking at photography as a parallel visual art, he may have seen the shortcomings of that medium and been inspired to think how in painting he could do better, and enhance the viewer's feeling of the reality he was portraying. (He certainly does so with the fire in that picture).Homer owned three cameras at a time when the technology was just being made available to amateurs and cameras were becoming something like portable. About a dozen of his photos are included. A few photos of him, and some of his family and their houses at Prouts' Neck survive and a good selecton are included. The authours also include photos of the pictures some place he travelled to.Photos may have helped with small specific details of his pictures having a role like a manikin. Cameras at his time were too vulnerable to capture the sea in its tumultuous state which was typically how he painted it.From the research set out in this book I conclude there is no link between photos and the overwhelming majority of his paintings, and I am especially pleased to know his magnificent sea pictures did not depend on photos (probably)!