Review by Choice Review
As a new generation of "high art" photographers in the 1970s searched for ways to reinvest the heroic landscape traditions of Edward Weston and Ansel Adams with contemporary meaning, a trio of young photographers--Ellen Manchester, JoAnn Verburg, and Mark Klett--found a solution that provided a particularly satisfactory answer in their Rephotographic Survey Project, which re-photographed sites originally photographed a hundred years earlier by Timothy O'Sullivan, John Hillers, William Henry Jackson, and other photographers of the developing American West. This mixture of art and science, and history and nostalgia privileged a conceptually "cool" topographical vision, vernacular sites, and an ideology of appropriation. It resonated strongly with other artists then and now, as can be witnessed by the many spin-offs and variant projects that surfaced over the past 30 years. This catalog documents one such effort, with Mark Klett partnering with Michael Lundgren, Philip Fradkin, and Rebecca Solnit to research and photograph San Francisco sites. The catalog consists of 48 pairs of beautifully printed photographs, along with maps, an interview with Klett by Karin Breuer, and well-written essays by Fradkin and Solnit (all illustrated). Everyone involved did an excellent job. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All levels. W. S. Johnson Monroe Community College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
