Diana and Nikon: Essays on Photography
Janet Malcolm takes nothing for granted. In complicated but lucid prose she sets out to change our perceptions of photographers and photography in this highly regarded volume, now in an expanded edition. She looks at Alfred Stieglitz's pioneering efforts on behalf of the medium as an art form, considers Edward Weston's "psychic journey" to Mexico, and reflects on how these men fared at the hands of recent biographers. Malcolm also examines misconceptions about Richard Avedon's fashion photography and analyzes the motives behind his often distressing celebrity portraits. In a new essay, she discusses the charges of exhibitionism leveled at the provocative work of Sally Mann.