Stephen Frailey: Looking at Photography

(Hardback)

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Description

Inspired by John Szarkowski's 1973 Looking at Photographs, and paying homage to the concept of the one hundred images and a page of text for each, Stephen Frailey now updates this classic with significant works of photography from early 80s to the present. Looking at Photography covers all genres of photography, and through discussing the process of the individual works Frailey - as photographer, editor and educator - articlulates the themes and sensibilities of contemporary photography. The book is illustrated with major works by acclaimed artists such as Tina Barney, Jeff Wall, Steven Meisel, Nan Goldin, Helmut Newton, Martin Parr, Tim Walker, Wolfgang Tillmans, among others.

Reviews

The world has become deluged by stores of images flooding our daily lives by virtue of the explosion of digital technology and our reliance upon it. Yet the subject of visual literacy goes largely unaddressed, and it is for this reason that photographer and educator Stephen Frailey's new book, Looking at Photography is a much-needed contribution to the discourse. [...] Frailey has compiled a fascinating selection of works accompanied by insightful and accessible text.--Miss Rosen "Blind"
Frailey picks up where the MoMA's former director of photography left off by examining images from the early Eighties on. Each of the 100 photos is accompanied with insights about the photographers. Readers will learn how Knight, for example, "has emboldened the medium to champion complex photographic technology and forays into digital sculpture, holography and virtual reality."--Rosemary Feitelberg "WWD"
The need to explain why photographers do what they do, and why it is valuable, remains as important as ever. Stephen Frailey has taken on the challenge.--David Schoerner "Pro Photo Daily"
Frailey has used Szarkowski's format to distill his understanding of photography, in all its modern tangents...the need to explain why photographers do what they do, and why it is valuable, remains as important as ever.--David Schonauer "American Photo"
Opens windows to the work of Tim Walker, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Nick Knight, Alex Prager, Collier Schorr, Juergen Teller, Deborah Turbeville and others.--Rosemary Feitelberg "WWD"

Author Bio

Stephen Frailey studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and received his BA from Bennington College. He has had solo exhibitions at 303 Gallery and the Julie Saul Gallery and group exhibitions in New York at the Museum of Modern Art, and the International Center for Photography, as well as at the National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC. His work has appeared as portfolios or been reviewed in publications such as the New York Times, Arts Magazine, Artforum, New Yorker, and the Paris Review. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Art, Houston; the International Center for Photography, New York; and the Princeton University Art Museum. He has been Chair of the Photography Department at New York's School of Visual Arts since 1998 and is also the Co-Chair of the MPS Fashion Photography Program at the School of Visual Arts. In 2003, he founded the Auction for Photographic Education in Afghanistan to create a photography department at Kabul University. He is the co-founder of the Art+Commerce Festival in New York. In 2007 he founded the photography magazine Dear Dave, and is its Editor in Chief.