At the Edge of the Light: Thoughts on Photography and Photographers, on Talent and Genius
In this enlivening suite of precise and thoughtful essays, Travis, curator of photography at the Art Institute of Chicago, conducts a unique and ardent inquiry. He explores "lived experience as a source of visual ideas" by considering the personal context within which specific photographs are made, reporting, for instance, on the revelations granted by his conversations with Brassai and scrutiny of the photographer's heavily marked books. Travis, who often quotes poetry, including that of Gary Snyder (the title is his) and Wallace Stevens, is intrigued with the "third period" of an artist's life, and offers thrillingly fresh analysis of late work by Edward Weston and Alfred Stieglitz. Travis also seeks to discern how exactly the artist transcends the mechanical point-and-shoot aspect of photography. And, most strikingly, he seeks new metaphors for understanding the power of images in mathematics, discussing Garry Winograd's gift for discovering "situational primes" and the way Henri Cartier-Bresson's photographs are "like a set geometric trap" into which the photographer adds "the dimension of incidence." This is cogent and adventurous thinking. A true intellectual pleasure.Donna SeamanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved