What do these images need? What does this book need? If I brought this out and people could buy it for five dollars, might I not sell eight thousand copies more, or two thousand copies more than I’m going to sell if I bring it out priced at fourteen dollars? […]
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This is a problem because an increasing number of [photography] books that come out are, in fact, extended statements. They are intended as unified books and intended to be dealt with as a unit of work. We’ve got to re-educate ourselves within photography to sitting down with that kind of book, and not the “greatest hits” kind of book which used to be the tradition. […] If photography books are to become really viable as products, without meaning as “merchandise,” if they’re to be able to be self-sustaining as a produced artifact, they’ve got to go beyond the market in photography. […] Szarkowski’s patronage practices tread ever closer to cronyism, in effect if not by intent. His esthetic, insufficient to the medium’s current stage of evolution, verges on stagnation. His tenure at MoMA, which has been distinguished in many ways, now runs the risk of ending in increasingly acrimonious confrontation with practitioners of that very medium to which he has committed so much of his life. […] The question is hardly whether or not John Szarkowski chooses to “consider himself to be an influential force.” He is one, de facto and de jure. He knows he is one; to believe otherwise is to impute to him a naiveté bordering on the moronic. And he exercises his influence regularly and consistently, in a variety of ways, to support the photographers he favors. […] |
 SPJ Research Award 2014All content of this publication is © copyright 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 by A. D. Coleman unless otherwise noted. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced for commercial purposes without prior written permission. All photos copyright by the individual photographers. "Fair use" allows quotation of excerpts of textual material from this site for educational and other noncommercial purposes.
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