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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Beauty in Photography is a welcome addition to my library. In an age of technology and sophisticated software - essential in its own right - this delightful book allows a step back in time to look at traditional values. Robert Adams view is personal and deeply reflective. The text is well written. It asserts and informs. The photographs are, on quiet study, interesting: they tell of the past e.g. 'Lewis Hine, Spinner, Ten years Old, Cotton Mill, North Carolina'. Overall, this book is wider than the subject of photography but as stated on the inside cover the writings and questions are timeless. Why not 5 stars? Only because I would (as with so many books) like more attention given to the way images are reproduced. However, for the enquiring mind this book is a timely reminder of the deeper values of a photograph.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a small gem of a book. A thought provoking reflection on the effectivness of photographs. Adams' analysis of landscape photography particularly and the place of humans in all landscapes challenges many long held views. Illustrated sparingly this well designed book is one to come back to again and again for the well written strength of its essays.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
9 reviews
34 of 34 people found the following review helpful
recommended
27 Nov 2004
Format:Paperback
For me, there are two key assertions in Robert Adams' "Beauty in Photography". First, that we "live in discouraging hours of society's apparent decay" (p. 88). Second, that the purpose of art is to "help us meet our worst fear, the suspicion that life may be chaos and that therefore our suffering is without meaning" (p. 25).
From these two assertions Adams develops his interpretation of photography: Photography detects, extracts and emphasizes the beauty around us, and by doing so it points toward something deeper in the world, an organizing power, a coherence supporting the world and our lifes. To Adams, photography is a spiritual exercise, making bearable an otherwise decaying sourrounding.
Art not concerned with depicting the world beautifully is, to Adams, mere "decoration". Thus, Adams tells us little interesting about most modern art, and his approach does not generalize, for instance, to music. That beauty can exist as such, that it can tell us something about ourselves even without refering to things in the world: This does not seem to be Adams experience.
In these very conservative views I disagree with Adams. Still, I recommend his essays to anyone who wants to understand why some photography is moving us while other is not. Even if Adams is not telling the whole story -probably nobody will- he is an excellent writer who talks about art in a clear and understandable way.
The only disappointment with the book was the poor reproduction quality of the images depicted. As a publisher specializing in photography books Aperture could do better.
From these two assertions Adams develops his interpretation of photography: Photography detects, extracts and emphasizes the beauty around us, and by doing so it points toward something deeper in the world, an organizing power, a coherence supporting the world and our lifes. To Adams, photography is a spiritual exercise, making bearable an otherwise decaying sourrounding.
Art not concerned with depicting the world beautifully is, to Adams, mere "decoration". Thus, Adams tells us little interesting about most modern art, and his approach does not generalize, for instance, to music. That beauty can exist as such, that it can tell us something about ourselves even without refering to things in the world: This does not seem to be Adams experience.
In these very conservative views I disagree with Adams. Still, I recommend his essays to anyone who wants to understand why some photography is moving us while other is not. Even if Adams is not telling the whole story -probably nobody will- he is an excellent writer who talks about art in a clear and understandable way.
The only disappointment with the book was the poor reproduction quality of the images depicted. As a publisher specializing in photography books Aperture could do better.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Well written, very honest a bit conservative.
18 Jun 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is really a book-let, something of a size common in old European Schools. The views expressed are honest but conservative, and overall its clear that the author lives in a somewhat "safe" academic environment and likes to resort to the standard referral method of using other photographers as setters of standards or at least, a base of reference. But, he does it knowingly and cracks at least one joke about it. It makes a very good read, and I worked my way through it in less than an hour. I would place it in a category perhaps of a "Zen of Photography" reading. For those photographers who are full of themselves this booklet will do no good. For those who perhaps, like to go on photographic quests, and thusly often question what they are doing, this book is a good read. The images shown are small and just act to prop up the essays, so they don't need to be supreme works of the printing art.
A good buy for the student and the expert alike.
A good buy for the student and the expert alike.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
I've learned a lot from reading Robert Adams' essays
18 Oct 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I found that various topics Adams discussed in his book, for instance, "What is beauty?", "How do you make art new?", "Can you photograph evil?", insightful and highly relevant even though it was written in the age of film. I read his essays again and again when I want to reflect on my photography.
If I had to quote, this would be one that I love most:
"Most of the pictures (in mass circulation photography magazines) suggest embarrassing strain: odd angles, extreme lenses, and eccentric darkroom techniques reveal a struggle to substitute shock and technology for sight." -Robert Adams
That is so relevant in the age of digital photography.
If I had to quote, this would be one that I love most:
"Most of the pictures (in mass circulation photography magazines) suggest embarrassing strain: odd angles, extreme lenses, and eccentric darkroom techniques reveal a struggle to substitute shock and technology for sight." -Robert Adams
That is so relevant in the age of digital photography.
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