Seizing the Light: A History of Photography by Robert Hirsch

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Textbook (Paperback - Older Edition)

  • 528pp
  • Sales Rank: 243,685

Textbook Information

  • ISBN-13: 9780697143617
  • Edition Description: Older Edition
  • Edition Number: 1
  • Pub. Date: October 1999
  • Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies, The

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Product Details

  • Pub. Date: October 1999
  • Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies, The
  • Format: Textbook Paperback, 528pp
  • Sales Rank: 243,685

Synopsis

"Its chief virtues are a succinct, mostly lucid style, a wide intellectual scope, a flood of ideas and insights at every turn, sensitivity to the technology and culture of photography, and a willingness to attend to images . . . In the end, perhaps the best measure of a text is whether or not one would choose it from among all the offerings to use in class. I have chosen to use this book." - Photo Review, Spring 2000

"An excellent introductory history book." - Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism

In this wonderful and entertaining book, Hirsch has produced the most useful, readable, and practical successor to Newhall. Seizing the Light is written in a friendly, accessible way -- dense with information, but more hip and lively than other offerings, especially those aimed at college students." - exposure: The research journal of the Society for Photographic Education. Vol. 32.2 (Fall, 1999)

Hirsch's prose is very digestible. He writes in a clear, lively style with a minimum of jargon." - Views: the newsletter of the Visual Material Section of the Society of American Archivists

Science, culture, and art come together in this comprehensive history of photography. With superlative production values, rare and unusual prints, and a fresh perspective, Robert Hirsch has written the ideal companion to the first 200 years of photography.

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Biography

Robert J. Hirsch (Buffalo, NY) is the Associate Director of Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY and co-director of Visual Studies Workshop Graduate Program. He is also Associate Professor of Art a SUNY/Brockport.Until June of 1999, he was the Director for Photographic Arts (CEPA Gallery), Rochester, NY.

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Seizing the Light: A History of Photographyby Anonymous

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December 29, 2005: For everyone with an interest in photography, either as an artist of the medium, a beginner looking for direction, or a collector who wants informed background to enhance appreciation of fine photographs both from the past and from the present obsession, SEIZING THE LIGHT: A History of Photography is essential reading. Robert Hirsch knows his subject and in one hefty book manages to share the beginnings of photography some 200 years ago with the evolution of the camera and the discipline of photographing. Well illustrated with both photographs and drawings, Hirsch chronicles the famous and not so famous practitioners of the art in succinct but richly colorful biographical abstracts to accompany examples of each artist. The phases through which this art form has passed makes for fascinating reading even beyond the scope of the title: the use of the camera in documenting the history of our globe at celebration, at war, at discovery, and at the side of the people of the day is a journey well lead by a writer well skilled. Though this book is now six years old it remains one of the more important textbooks for the art school classroom. But more important it is so richly written that it remains a fascinating survey of life since the camera. From the beginnings of the pinhole box to the present day digital images on the cell phone etc, the invention of the camera has inextricably changed our perception of the world. Learn the how and why of it! Highly recommended. Grady Harp