Arthur Tress (b. 1940) is a singular figure in the landscape of postwar American photography. His seminal series, The Dream Collector, depicts Tress's interests in dreams, nightmares, fantasies, and the unconscious and established him as one of the foremost proponents of magical realism at a time when few others were doing staged photography. This volume presents the first critical look at Tress's early career, contextualizing the highly imaginative, fantastic work he became known for while also examining his other interrelated series: Appalachia: People and Places,; Open Space in the Inner City,; Shadow,;and Theater of the Mind. James A. Ganz, Mazie M. Harris, and Paul Martineau plumb Tress's work and archives, studying ephemera, personal correspondence, unpublished notes, diaries, contact sheets, and more to uncover how he went from earning his living as a social documentarian in Appalachia to producing surreal work of "imaginative fiction." This abundantly illustrated volume imparts a fuller understanding of Tress's career and the New York photographic scene of the 1960s and 1970s.

"I would hope that I am one of a kind." -Rodney Smith Mystery and manners, romance and fun-the sophisticated compositions and stylish characters in the extraordinary pictures of fashion photographer Rodney Smith (1947-2016) exist in a timeless world of his imagination. Born in New York City, Smith started out as a photo-essayist, turned to portrait photography, and found his niche, and greatest success, in fashion photography. Inspired by W. Eugene Smith, taught by Walker Evans, and devoted to the techniques of Ansel Adams, Smith was driven by the dual ideals of technical mastery and pure beauty. This lavish volume features nearly two hundred reproductions of Smith's images-many that have never before been published-and weaves together a biocritical essay by Getty Museum curator Paul Martineau and a technical assessment of Smith's production by the Center for Creative Photography's chief curator, Rebecca Senf. It maps Smith's creative trajectory-including his introduction to photography, early personal projects, teaching, commissioned pieces, and career in fashion-and provides insight into his personal life and character, contextualizing his work and creative tendencies within his privileged but lonely upbringing and his complex emotional and psychological makeup. Rodney Smith is the definitive record of the life's work and worldview of a truly original artist.

With more than 26,000 works, the Samuel J. Wagstaff Jr. collection of photographs is the largest single group of artworks in any medium at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Wagstaff (1921-1987) amassed his extraordinary collection between 1973 and 1984, recognizing early that photography was an undervalued art form on which he might have a profound impact as a collector. He was mainly attracted to photographs that stimulated his imagination, and his taste ran toward the idiosyncratic-images that surprised him chiefly because he had never seen them before.In choosing the 147 works reproduced in this volume, Paul Martineau selected masterpieces as well as images from obscure sources: daguerreotypes, cartes-de-visite, and stereographs, plus mug shots, medical photographs, and works by unknown makers. The latter category contains some of the most outstanding objects in the collection, demonstrating Wagstaff's willingness to position unfamiliar images alongside works by established masters as well as underrepresented contemporary artists of the time, including Jo Ann Callis, William Garnett, and Edmund Teske.This book is published to accompany an eponymous exhibition on view at the J.Paul Getty Museum from March 15 to July 31, 2016; at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT, from September 10 to December 11, 2016; and at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, ME, from February 1 to April 30, 2017.

Thoroughly researched and beautifully produced, this catalogue complements the first comprehensive retrospective in the United States of Imogen Cunningham's work in over thirty-five years. Celebrated American artist Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976) enjoyed a long career as a photographer, creating a large and diverse body of work that underscored her unique vision, versatility, and commitment to the medium. An early feminist and inspiration to future generations, Cunningham intensely engaged with Pictorialism and Modernism; genres of portraiture, landscape, the nude, still life, and street photography; and themes such as flora, dancers and music, hands, and the elderly. Organized chronologically, this volume explores the full range of the artist's life and career. It contains nearly two hundred color images of Cunningham's elegant, poignant, and groundbreaking photographs, both renowned and lesser known, including several that have not been published previously. Essays draw on primary sources at the Imogen Cunningham Trust, the Cunningham papers at the Archives of American Art, and contributing author Susan Ehrens's personal interviews with the artist's associates, incorporating a selection of letters, family albums, and other intimate materials to enrich readers' understanding of Cunningham's motivations and work. This volume is published to accompany an exhibition on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center September 15, 2020, to January 10, 2021 and at the Seattle Art Museum, February 11 to May 23, 2021.

A fascinating look at one of photography's most controversial and beloved iconsThe legacy of Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) is rich and complicated, triggering controversy, polarizing critics, and providing inspiration for many artists who followed him. One of the most influential figures of his time, today Mapplethorpe stands as an example to emerging photographers who continue to experiment with the boundaries of acceptability and concepts of the beautiful.Robert Mapplethorpe: The Photographs offers a timely and rewarding examination of his oeuvre and influence. Drawing from the extraordinary collection jointly acquired in 2011 by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, as well as the Mapplethorpe Archive housed at the Getty Research Institute, the authors were given the unique opportunity to explore new resources and present fresh perspectives. The result is a fascinating introduction to Mapplethorpe's career and legacy, accompanied by a rich selection of illustrations covering the remarkable range of his photographic work.All of these beautifully integrated elements contribute to what promises to become an essential point of access to Mapplethorpe's work and practice. This publication is issued on the occasion of the exhibition Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium on view at both the J. Paul Getty Museum and at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from March 15 through July 31, 2016; at the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Montreal from September 9, 2016, through January 7, 2017; and at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, from October 2017 through February 2018.

In 1911 the French couturier Paul Poiret challenged Edward Steichen to create the first artistic, rather than merely documentary, fashion photographs, a moment that is now considered to be a turning point in the history of fashion photography. As fashion changed over the next century, so did the photography of fashion. Steichen's modernist approach was forthright and visually arresting. In the 1930s the photographer Martin Munkacsi pioneered a gritty, photojournalistic style. In the 1960s Richard Avedon encouraged his models to express their personalities by smiling and laughing, which had often been discouraged previously. Helmut Newton brought an explosion of sexuality into fashion images and turned the tables on traditional gender stereotypes in the 1970s, and in the 1980s Bruce Weber and Herb Ritts made male sexuality an important part of fashion photography. Today, following the integration of digital technology, teams like Inez & Vinoodh and Mert & Marcus are reshaping our notion of what is acceptable-not just aesthetically but technically and conceptually-in a fashion photograph. From glossy pages in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar to framed prints on museum walls, fashion photography encompasses both commercial advertising and fine art. This survey of one hundred years of fashion photography updates and reevaluates this history in five chronological chapters by experts in photography and fashion history. It includes more than three hundred photographs by the genre's most famous practitioners as well as important but lesser-known figures, alongside a selection of costumes, fashion illustrations, magazine covers, and advertisements.

This is a beautifully illustrated tribute to one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth-century. Controversial, misunderstood, and sometimes overlooked, Minor White (1908-1976) is one of the great photographers of the 20th-century, whose ideas exerted a powerful influence on a generation of photographers and still resonate today. His photographic career began in 1938 in Portland, Oregon, with assignments for the WPA (Works Progress Administration). After serving in World War II and studying art history at Columbia University, White's focus shifted toward the metaphorical. He began creating images charged with symbolism and a critical aspect called equivalency, referring to the invisible spiritual energy present in a photograph made visible to the viewer. This book brings together White's key biographical information - his evolution as a photographer, teacher of photography, and editor of Aperture, as well as particularly insightful quotations from his journal, which he kept for more than forty years. The result is an engaging narrative that weaves through the main threads of White's life, his growth as an artist, as well as his spiritual search and ongoing struggle with his own sexuality and self-doubt. He sought comfort in a variety of religious practices that influenced his continually metamorphosing artistic philosophy.

A riveting retrospective of the imaginative photographs created by contemporary artist Abelardo Morell Over the past twenty-five years, Abelardo Morell (b. 1948) has earned international praise for his images that use the language of photography to explore visual surprise and wonder. Born in Havana, Cuba, Morell came to the United States as a teenager in 1962 and later studied photography, earning an MFA from Yale University. He gained attention for intimate, black-and-white pictures of domestic objects from a child's point of view, inspired by the birth of his son in 1986, as well as images in which he turns a room into a giant camera obscura, projecting exterior views onto interior spaces; and photographs of books that revel in their sensory materiality. In more recent years, he has turned to color, exploring the camera obscura with a painterly delight and innovating a tent camera that projects outdoor scenes onto a textured ground. Across his career, Morell has approached photography with remarkable wit and creativity, examining everyday objects with childlike curiosity. The first in-depth treatment in fifteen years, this handsome and important book examines Morell's career to the present day, including his earlier works in black-and-white and never before published color photographs from the past decade. An essay by Elizabeth Siegel, along with a recent interview with the artist and an illustrated chronology of his life and works, offers a riveting portrait of this contemporary photographer and his ongoing artistic endeavors. Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago Exhibition Schedule: The Art Institute of Chicago(06/01/13-09/02/13) The J. Paul Getty Museum(10/01/13-01/05/14) High Museum of Art(02/22/14-05/18/14)