The Art of Photography at National Geographic - Tapa dura

A prolonged, quiet unfolding of genius is what Jane Livingston, chief curator of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, calls the first century of National Geographic photography. Striving to portray our planet's remarkably diverse people, creatures, and landscapes, four generations of Geographic photographers have made their work an indelible part of our culture. When the Corcoran Gallery of Art, one of the nation's leading photographic museums, decided to organize an exhibition celebrating the National Geographic Society's centennial, their curators were granted complete access to the Society's formidable archives. "The Art of Photography at National Geographic", companion to the museum exhibition, presents 289 silver prints, autochromes, and full-color images from the Society's collections. Never before have the photographs in The Art of Photography been showcased as art; half of these works by 158 leading 19th- and 20th-century photographers are published here for the first time. "The Art of Photography" moves from the somber grace of early masterpieces like Henri Bechard's depictions of carved wooden balconies in Cairo, to the insightful humor of recent works like Chris Johns' portrait of two Canadians watching TV in a junked 1940s' sedan. Subjects and treatments range across space and time from the first undersea photograph to a shot of the moon taken by an Apollo 17 crew member, and portray the human experience as a Havasupai Indian cradles her infant and a Peruvian shepherd boy mourns the loss of his sheep. In their commitment to telling the story, Geographic photographers have developed techniques and aesthetic standards which give their work a special place in the history of American photography. Seemingly effortless technical mastery - in which these photographic pioneers have always excelled - has been invaluable in capturing the rare, the ancient, the elusive, and the endangered. Jane Livingston's perceptive introduction traces the history of photography at National Geographic and defines the Society's unique contribution to photographic art. "The Art of Photography" reproduces every image from the exhibition in full frame and full color. Identifying captions for each image are supplemented by additional information and artists' biographies in the book's appendix. A milestone in the appreciation of photography, "The Art of Photography" imparts the familiar pleasures of National Geographic - a fresh view of our world's countries, creatures, and cultures woven into a rich and wondrous tapestry.

Jane Livingston has organized more than fifty exhibitions, half of which have featured photography, during twelve years as Associate Director and Chief Curator at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Livingston received her B.A. at Pomona College and her M.A. in art history at Harvard. Before joining the Corcoran Gallery, she was Curator of Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 1967 to 1975. She has been a consultant and advisor to the National Endowment for the Arts, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Friends of Photography, Artists Space, and the American Arts Alliance. Livingston co-authored L'Amour Fou: Photography and Surrealism (1985, with Rosalind Krauss), and Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters and Sculptors (1987, with John Beardsley). Her other publications include The Indelible Image: Photographs of War, 1846 - 1984 (1985, with Frances Fralin) and Black Folk Art in America (1983, with John Beardsley). She has also organized an exhibition and book on the photography of Lee Miller (1988).