Paul Strand: Master of Modern Photography

This is one of the best photography books that I have purchased. Because the hardback book is quite large in its dimensions, the single photographs on each page are quite large as well and therefore easy to view and enjoy. Thankfully, no pictures are divided across two pages, being split down the middle. Given the number of photographs in this book, I thought the price was quite reasonable. I'd rather pay a bit more and be able to easily view the photos. Keep in mind that this book is quite heavy in weight; you'll get a workout lifting and lowering the book!!

The book was so damaged I thought t was really second hand. To bad because otherwise it's a great classic cofee table book, good quality, very heavy, covering most of Strand work with interesting text.

A major contribution to a fuller understanding of one of the greatest photography artists of the 20th century.

Beautiful book. Superb reproduction quality.

Excellent book for Photography lovers.

Too much wordage, not enough imagery. Nothing new, here. Rehashing a little of the same old well-know stories of one of photography's greatest practitioners, and a lot about the people who put the exhibition and the book together.The images are printed somewhat darkly, and many of his best works are missing. I'm not quite sure why they thought that publishing the book was necessary, or even desirable.

This is a beautiful new retrospective of Strand's work, published in conjunction with the show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The quality of the reproductions is excellent, and the format is large enough to do justice to the photographs. There are approximately 250 plates, making for a comprehensive overview of Strand's career. I've seen Strand's photographs in many shows and this book would be an excellent addition to the library of anyone that appreciates his work.

Sul libro poco da dire: è il libro più completo di uno dei più importanti fotografi del ventesimo secolo. Il formato è molto grande e la qualità generale è ottima. Purtroppo, come accade spesso con Amazon, il bene era imballato in modo vergognoso, in un cartone enorme rispetto al libro e senza alcuna protezione. Risultato: il libro è ammaccato su un angolo e, considerato che parliamo di un libro che costa 60 euro, è un difetto non da poco. Bisognerebbe imparare ad imballare le cose.

Libro molto bello, acquistato a un buon prezzo, ma arrivato in condizioni non buone: angoli della copertina cartonata ammaccati, sopraccoperta piuttosto sciupata.

Ottima retrospettiva di uno dei maestri della fotografia

Some books make me angry. This is one of them. They threw away the chance of producing a great book about a master of photography. I bought the book, I saw it and now I will send it back for a full refund.The book has 245 plates. At least half of them are flat, flat, flat. Many plates are just too dark. About 2/3 of the plates are yellowish. Well, at least they are not sepia.They scanned prints of Paul Strand and did, in general, a mediocre job. I would say that 10, maybe 15% of the plates look really good but never truly excellent. Even so, you will need to take the book for a walk with you or seat near a window when the sun is shinning if you want to appreciate the good plates.There is no acceptable reason for the poor quality of so many reproductions. If their budget wasn’t enough, what is unlikely considering all the sponsors and collaborators, they should had made a book with less plates but better quality. I compared photos from this book with photos from other books. They always look better in the other books. But don’t take my word for it. I will upload photos later. Look at the photos and make up your own mind.It says in the book that the museum responsible for this publication acquired the core print collection of the Paul Strand Archive from the Aperture Foundation. It puzzled me because every single Paul Strand book published by Aperture that I’ve seen has better reproduced photos than this book. I guess they hold the negatives or have higher production values. Maybe both.It says in the book that the museum has “3264 works comprising the finest existing prints and glass positives of every image in the Archive, including variants and duplicates made at different times and with different papers…The Paul Strand collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art now includes outstanding master prints…” And this book is what they offer to the public?One of the texts in the book says that Paul Strand “ insisted on the quality and uniqueness of his prints, and most of them indeed have extraordinary physical presence “ . But most photos in this book have no “extraordinary physical presence” as they are flat and/or yellowish and/or too dark.And a text on “Aperture Masters of Photography - Paul Strand” says that “ In 1919 Strand began experimenting with a large format view camera and by 1921 it was his chief instrument…he now exclusively made contact prints the same size as the 8 by 10 inch negatives, bringing a clarity and sharp focus that he would come to view as essential in photography”It is not what I saw in many photos in this poorly printed book. They say, somewhere in the book, that Paul Strand would be very happy with the quality of the reproductions in this book. I doubt it very much.The back flap of the book informs that the book has 323 colour and 31 black and white illustrations. It is the other way around. And I would never say 323 black and white illustrations as most of them are not really black and white. They are yellowish, reducing considerably the natural contrast between black and white. Snow, for example, is white. It is not yellow. Yellowish snow, as I saw in a photo in the book, looks just awful . It says, on the last “Aperture Masters of Photography - Paul Strand “ : “Snow and light define every rock”. It is true for the photo on the Aperture book, as it is a black and white photo. But not for the same photo in this book , as the photo was printed yellowish what reduces the contrast between the black of the rocks and the white of the snow.Maybe the mistaken information about the number of colour illustrations is more than just a typing error because I have a general impression, after spending some time with this book, that they are more interested in an over intellectualisation of Strand’s work than on the photos themselves.The book even has the transcription of a round table discussion among key scholars. Of course, they are all key scholars, top lawyers, leading universities…I never heard someone refer to “bottom lawyers” or “unimportant scholars”. Why not write just “scholars” ?They cared to put the transcription of a round table where you will read things such as Strand “is looking at these underlying forces that govern societal structures as well as organic structures. It’s a very pantheistic way of looking, and it gets quickly into metaphysical territories” or “what you say makes me think that we make a mistake if we divide the world of photography and film in to the realm of stillness and movement”.Very well. But couldn’t they balance the texts and add some concrete information about the photos in the book ?It seems that they didn’t think it was important to give information about the photos and the printing process used in this book . All I could find was that photos which are up to 8x10 inches were printed on their original size. This is the one good thing I can say about the book. The second one is that most plates are really large. And the third one is that this book has a comprehensive selection of Strand’s work that is unmatched by other books.But there is no information about the story of the photos themselves such as they do now in the Aperture series “Masters of Photography”. I didn’t expect a short text about every single photo but at least a general introduction to each group of photos.This book accompanies an exhibition that will come to the UK next month. The exhibition will be held in London, in the Victoria Museum, from 19 march 2016 to 03 july 2016. If possible, I will certainly go to the exhibition. But this book here is going back to Amazon.I really dislike writing a review stern as this one but cheerleading just for the sake of it leads only to mediocrity and Paul Strand, as so many other master photographers, was looking for the beauty and truth of surpassing art, surpassing photography.P.S. The photos show this book together with the book “ Aperture Masters of Photography - Paul Strand”, the new edition.The photo of the woman is from this book. The photo of the boy is from Aperture’s “ The World on my Doorstep”, 1994 edition. Look how the photo in that book look so much better than in this book and even than in the new edition of “Masters of Photography”.P.S.2 If you are looking to buy a Paul Strand book and care about printing quality then get "Paul Strand: An American Vision" isbn 0893814423 . It was published by Aperture in 1991.