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Philip Gefter: Photography After Frank Paperback – June 1, 2009

by Philip Gefter (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 24 ratings
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In Photography After Frank, former New York Times writer and picture editor Philip Gefter narrates the tale of contemporary photography, beginning at the pivotal moment when Robert Frank commenced his seminal works of the 1950s. Along the way, he connects the dots of photography's evolution into what it is today, forging links between its episodes to reveal unsuspected leaps. Gefter takes Frank's The Americans as a decisive challenge to photographic objectivity, with its grainy, off-hand-seeming spontaneity and its documentation of life beyond the picket fence. Thus viewed, The Americans provides Gefter with a bridge to the phenomenon of the staged document and Postmodernism's further challenge to image fidelity. Other areas of discussion include photojournalism, the recent diversity of portraiture styles, the influence of private and corporate collections on curatorial decisions and how the market shapes art making. Throughout Photography After Frank, Gefter deftly demonstrates Frank's legacy in the work of dozens of important individual artists who followed in his wake, from Lee Friedlander and Nan Goldin to Stephen Shore and Ryan McGinley. The book includes texts written exclusively for this publication as well as essays drawn from Gefter's critical writings, reviews and even obituaries. Photography After Frank offers a page-turning approach to a subject that will appeal to students and art world aficionados alike.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    223 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Aperture
  4. Publication date
    June 1, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    6.3 x 0.9 x 8.7 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1597110957
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1597110952
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"In accesible prose, Gefter's short essays manage to trace Frank's influence from the likes of Lee Friedlander and Nan Goldin to Stephen Shore and Ryan McGinley. All along the way, he offers readers brief snippets -- many of the pieces have been taken from the Times or Aperture magazine, so they're no more than four pages -- on individual photographers and subjects like photo-realism or the market's effect on art-making." -- Valerie Palmer --Planet blog

"Insightful and intelligent, Photography after Frank is a perceptive and journalistic approach to certain contemporary issues in photography." --HotShoe Magazine

About the Author

Philip Gefter was on staff at the New York Times for over fifteen years, where he wrote regularly about photography. His essays are collected in the book Photography After Frank (2009). His biography of Sam Wagstaff, Wagstaff: Before and After Mapplethorpe, was published in 2014 (Liveright). He lives in New York City.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Aperture (June 1, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 223 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1597110957
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1597110952
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.28 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.3 x 0.9 x 8.7 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 24 ratings

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Philip Gefter

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4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
24 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

David Sovulewski
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Photgography Essays
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2010
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For us photography nuts this is must have. This collection of essays on artists and other photo subjects is a delightful and valuable read.
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James D
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Reading
Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2009
[...]

When people ask me what they need to do to understand the world of fine art photography, I tell them: go to galleries, preview auctions, and read the photography criticism in The New York Times. The Times suggestion was in large part because of the timely, eloquent, and provocative writing of Philip Gefter, the picture editor and photography writer for the paper's Arts & Leisure section. Gefter has now left the paper although he continues to contribute as a freelance and you'll now see his byline in other publications. But the good news is that Aperture have gathered 39 of his pieces in one volume that no-one interested in photography should be without.

As you can see above, it has a great cover featuring Ryan McGinley's "Dakota Hair" from 2004. From there, much like the picture, it's an exhilarating and breezy journey though modern photography. Stephen Shore is "Walker Evans - stoned"! On Richard Misrach "Don't let the beauty of Richard Misrach fool you. ... What lies beneath the surface is more to the point." And from an essay on Vince Aletti's magazine collection, "One Saturday afternoon, I accompanied Vince on his rounds and, after nine galleries, with flagging energy I begged off. But Vince was not finished for the day. He is dogged apparently insatiable in his quest to know what's out there, to see what artists are doing. I have come to understand that his commitment to looking at art stems from the same impulse to collect: know thy culture, know thyself."

Now that's summer reading!
6 people found this helpful
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Jane Muir
5.0 out of 5 stars "Photography After Frank"
Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2009
I highly recommend "Photography After Frank". It gave me a really good grasp of the landscape of contemporary photography by tracing its roots back to Robert Frank. The essays are well written and insightful and devoid of artspeak. As a whole, a really good explanation of the way the photographic image has mutated and transformed with new technologies, and, also, evolved alongside painting.
3 people found this helpful
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Conrad J. Obregon
4.0 out of 5 stars Light but Interesting Reading About Photography
Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2011
There are photography technique books, and portfolio books, and books of critiques and even philosophy and theory of photography. All of them are probably interesting to someone and occasionally quite challenging. But sometimes a person interested in photography wants to read something light and accessible with little anecdotes, and if I can say it without being insulting, just veg out. Here's the book for that time.

The book is a collection of short essays (mostly newspaper articles) by Philip Gefter about photography covering everything from reviews of show openings to obituaries of photographers, as well as some new introductory material prepared for the book and an interview with Gefter by Veronique Vienne. Gefter served for several years as the picture editor for the front page of the New York Times. (Who knew "the gray lady" was so serious about photography that it even had such a position?) The sections of the book are called the document; the staged document; photojournalism; the portrait; the collection; and the marketplace. The essays are chatty and often contain tidbits about the world of photography that I had not encountered but found interesting.

The title may be a little misleading. One might think that it would show how the elements of Robert Frank's style that made such an impact with the publication of "The Americans" shaped photography. While the author does occasionally refer to Frank in the essays, it is not to emphasize his role or how other photographers built on his style. Instead the publication date of "The Americans" serves as a kind of marker for the period that the essays cover.

The essays cover a broad view of the photography scene, even going as far as to discuss how the painter Eric Fischl uses photography in his painting, not to copy from, but rather to provide a vocabulary to examine the world. On the other hand while Gefter notes the arrival of Ryan McGinley on the photography scene as a rising star, there was little in his essay on the photographer to help me understand why McGinley's pictures of leaping naked young people were worth my attention. There are 47 pages in the plates section that contain enough photographs to show an accurate exploration of the history of photography beginning with Frank.

Some articles are quite mundane, like the obituary of Cornell Capa, who founded the International Center for Photography, which essentially is a "then he did X" article. Sometimes the articles are mind-provoking like the article that suggests that many news photographs can't stand alone as images, but can tell a significant story with just a short caption.

Folks who are interested in some light but interesting reading about photography should enjoy this book.
7 people found this helpful
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Bob
1.0 out of 5 stars Things that happened after Frank
Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2010
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I don't buy the supposed connection between Frank and some of the photographers covered in this book. Avedon and Mapplethorpe? Pics are too small. Too much writing not enough pictures. The writing does not make the case. It is contrived art scholar verbiage. Walker Evans and Company is a much better book in this genre. As is Arthur Wesley Dow and American Arts and Crafts.
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エイト
3.0 out of 5 stars 写真集ではありません。写真史です。
Reviewed in Japan on September 4, 2016
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表紙にあるような写真集を期待して購入しましたが、内容はアメリカ近代写真史でした。写真自体も作家を紹介するぐらいのもので多くはなく、期待したものではありませんでした。中身が確認できない以上、アマゾンで写真集を買うというのは難しいものだな、と思います。
4 people found this helpful
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juanathens
5.0 out of 5 stars interesting
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 26, 2012
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pretty insightful. thoroughly provides us with a presentation of the last 40-50 years "street photography" as percieved today by curators and editors on both sides of the ocean.
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S.Kent
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 21, 2016
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Great read
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CameraHobbit
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book very insightful and motivational
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 12, 2013
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A very enjoyable book which touches on various aspects of photography, an eye opener and definite motivation for new projects
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