Fotografia

In the 1890s Philadelphia's preeminent photographer, William H. Rau, was commissioned to take more than 450 photographs along the routes of the Pennsylvania Railroad in order to promote travel on the railway to the general public. Known as "the standard railroad of the world," the PRR was the largest rail system in the East and linked metropolitan New York and Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and such industrial cities of the Midwest as Chicago and St. Louis.

Using a mammoth view camera that made 18-inch by 22-inch glass negatives, Rau produced a spectacular series of images for the...

Woody Walters is one of Florida's major fine-art photographers. In this collection of his pictures of the land and its people, Walters captures images, in infinite shadings of black and white, that transport viewers on a light trip through his native state.
"A magical book . . . filled with plate after plate of captivating, black and white images. . . . a snarling Florida panther, sea oats at Longboat Key, the Loxahatchee, Fisheating Creek untouched. Walters reminds us of what we want to keep."--Florida Wildlife

Just as a white surface reflects all the colors of the...

"A comprehensive study on Barthes and photography . . . the most studious research on the topic."--Antoine Compagnon, Columbia University and the Sorbonne

"Interesting and significant. . . . Important for scholars, students, and general readers interested in literature, art, photography, critical theory, and media studies."--Scott Nygren, University of Florida

French theoretician Roland Barthes enjoyed a long and shifting relationship with photography, using it first as metaphor, moving on to explore its use in movies, film stills, political campaigns, and popular photographic...

Sulky races at the Mercer County Fair, church suppers, sorghum making, shooting marbles in the school yard, housing tobacco, loafing at the courthouse -- here are 129 beautifully reproduced images of who we were as Kentuckians not so long ago -- during the Depression and the early years of World War II.

This collection is part of the remarkable series of photos shot for the Farm Security Administration -- more than 125,000 photographs taken over a period of nine years by some of the best American photographers of the time, including Ben Shahn, Marion Post Wolcott, Russell Lee, John...

"Robert Kollar captures the diversity, color, and dramatic scale of life in the Tennessee Valley in this collection of 240 color photographs. He records the Friday night high school football games, county fairs, family reunions, and Sunday dinners that make the region so appealing. Kelly Leiter s text reveals the real people behind the faces-their concerns and their pride, their savvy, and their traditionalism."

" With over 100 glorious full-color photographs and insightful text, Kentucky's Last Great Places highlights the incredible natural beauty found in the Commonwealth's old-growth forests, prairies, wetlands, and other distinctive biological habitats. Many types -- more than 3,000 vascular plants, 230 fish, 105 amphibians and reptiles, 350 birds, 75 mammals, and 12,000 insects -- make Kentucky their home. Many of these species and their habitats are considered rare, threatened, or endangered. Overall, less than one percent of Kentucky is classified ecologically as being in a "pre-European"...

Seeing America explores the camera work of five women who directed their visions toward influencing social policy and cultural theory. Taken together, they visually articulated the essential ideas occupying the American consciousness in the years between the world wars.

Melissa McEuen examines the work of Doris Ulmann, who made portraits of celebrated artists in urban areas and lesser-known craftspeople in rural places; Dorothea Lange, who magnified human dignity in the midst of poverty and unemployment; Marion Post Wolcott, a steadfast believer in collective strength as the...

In Camera Clues, Joe Nickell shares his methods of identifying and dating old photos and demonstrates how to distinguish originals from copies and fakes. Particularly intriguing are his discussions of camera tricks, darkroom manipulations, retouching techniques, and uses of computer technology to deceive the eye. Camera Clues concludes with a look at allegedly "paranormal" photography, from nineteenth-century "spirit photographs" to UFO snapshots.

The advertising campaigns launched by Kodak in the early years of snapshot photography stand at the center of a shift in American domestic life that goes deeper than technological innovations in cameras and film. Before the advent of Kodak advertising in 1888, writes Nancy Martha West, Americans were much more willing to allow sorrow into the space of the domestic photograph, as evidenced by the popularity of postmortem photography in the mid-nineteenth century. Through the taking of snapshots, Kodak taught Americans to see their experiences as objects of nostalgia, to arrange their lives...

The advertising campaigns launched by Kodak in the early years of snapshot photography stand at the center of a shift in American domestic life that goes deeper than technological innovations in cameras and film. Before the advent of Kodak advertising in 1888, writes Nancy Martha West, Americans were much more willing to allow sorrow into the space of the domestic photograph, as evidenced by the popularity of postmortem photography in the mid-nineteenth century. Through the taking of snapshots, Kodak taught Americans to see their experiences as objects of nostalgia, to arrange their lives...

The only collection of photographs devoted to one of America's natural treasures, Shenandoah: Views of Our National Park documents one man's decades-long fascination with this uniquely beautiful region in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Hullihen Williams Moore has been visiting Shenandoah National Park since the mid-1960s, but it was after studying with Ansel Adams in 1979 that he began seriously photographing it. Through fifty-one black-and-white duotone photographic prints, Moore reveals the quiet beauty of Shenandoah National Park. From grand vistas and waterfalls to the delicate...

The only collection of photographs devoted to one of America's natural treasures, Shenandoah: Views of Our National Park documents one man's decades-long fascination with this uniquely beautiful region in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Hullihen Williams Moore has been visiting Shenandoah National Park since the mid-1960s, but it was after studying with Ansel Adams in 1979 that he began seriously photographing it. Through fifty-one black-and-white duotone photographic prints, Moore reveals the quiet beauty of Shenandoah National Park. From grand vistas and waterfalls to the delicate...

-Because Eden's genius resides in imagination, it is a mobile spirit; always found in place but never confined by place. The spirit of Eden migrates within us, animated through our imaginative responses to actual places in the material world, in our roles as gardeners and poets, painters and photographers.-

--from the introduction

What did Eden look like? In Imagining Eden the photographer Lyle Gomes observes landscapes that represent the idea of locus amoenus--the pleasant place. The tradition of locus amoenus goes back to the idyllic descriptions of...