F E AT U R E
Print is Dead. Long Live Print: The
Text-image courses are a staple of
“Tyger Tyger, burning bright/In the forests
It is commonly assumed that photography is
World’s Best Independent Magazines
creative writing programs, of which
of the night.” These timeless lines by
about making pictures with a camera (or other
(Prestel, $49.95) presents a survey of
there are over eight hundred in the
poet-painter William Blake still convey a
devices), and that a photographer’s practice
independent magazines that are infusing
United States (up from seventy-nine in
sense of the dread and awe evoked for
revolves around this action. In Photographers’
the genre with new directions. Author
1982). However, discovery of a symbiosis
Blake’s readers by the creature’s “fearful
Sketchbooks (Thames and Hudson, $60),
Ruth Jamieson brings to the project her
between
predates
symmetry.” Yet it is as much the “forests
authors and fellow photographers Stephen
expertise from writing for The Guardian,
creative writing workshops. In his Art of
of the night” that infuse the toy-like tiger
McLaren and Bryan Formhals introduce
The Telegraph, and The Times, along with
Poetry, a work on the craft of poetry and
of Blake’s colored print with the menace
the reader to the processes employed by
her experience as a creative director in
drama addressed to his Roman peers by
we feel from the great cat whose fierce
forty-nine contemporary photographers
the advertising industry. She assembles
the Augustan-age lyric poet Horace, the
visage stares at us from the deep jungle
in conceptualizing their work. Through
over fifty profiles of ahead-of-their-genre
author coined a phrase that would have
foliage of Henri Rousseau’s Le Rêve. Since
thematic essays, the reader enters the realm
publications from throughout the world
lasting import for later writers and artists.
the dawn of man the night has played a
of each artist’s intimate, creative journey.
that are innovators and shapers of print
Ut pictura poesis—literally, “as in painting,
profound role in both our perception
Personal statements by the artists and
journalism’s future. Following Jamieson’s
so in poetry”—was Horace’s take on a
and imagination. It has provided subject,
numerous examples of the visual research,
short introduction, the magazines are
still earlier belief about the link between
tone, or theme in the visual arts in works
sketches, drawings, and minutiae that fill
grouped within categories such as
both art forms, realized in imagistic prose
as diverse as Caravaggio’s Conversion
their sketchbooks follow these texts. The
Travel, Life, Food and Drink, Sports,
and mimetic painting. Horace’s catchy
of Saint Paul, Rembrandt’s Nightwatch,
practice of using a sketchbook to record
Design, and Current Affairs. Each entry
phrase was a locus for the revival of this
and Picasso’s Night Fishing at Antibes.
ideas is de rigueur for most artists. The
receives four pages of treatment that
conceit in the Renaissance. Fast forward
Yet the Bowdoin College Museum of
difference here is that the products of the
includes full-color images of covers,
to Sunlight On The River: Poems about
Art can rightly claim that its exhibition
process will be presented as some form of
interior spreads, newly commissioned
Paintings, Paintings about Poems (Prestel,
and accompanying publication, Night
photographic project, altered significantly
photographs, and information on the
$34.95) edited by Scott Gutterman. With
Vision: Nocturnes in American Art, 1860 to
from the preparatory materials. These
periodical’s distinguishing characteristics.
all deference to creative writing faculty,
1960 (DelMonico Books/Prestel and the
sketchbook entries are fascinating snapshots
Also included are publication details
one refreshing fact about the book is
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, $60) is
of how some photographers approach their
like the launch date, the name of the
that Gutterman is not professor, poet, or
“the first major museum survey dedicated
work. McLaren writes in his introduction,
founder, and the home country. There
painter. His day job is deputy director for
to scenes of the night in American art.”
“Each presentation is unique and derives
is often a lengthy quotation from an
Neue Galerie New York. And while he
If Night Vision is a tad too ambitious
from an intimate and personal body of work
editor, founder, or creative director that
himself chose the paintings and poems,
in claiming that the “reduced visual
that has not been prepared for a commercial
highlights the magazine’s rationale and
his criteria were poems that referenced
information and altered perception” of
client. Individually, they celebrate the
perceived challenges. All that is missing
paintings, and paintings based on poems.
night were factors “contributing to the
personal interests, artistic sensibilities, and
from this volume is Jamieson’s take on
Gutterman brought to these criteria
rise of abstraction during the first half of
aesthetic styles that define each contributor
THE magazine.—SW
an insight that assures the appeal of the
the twentieth century,” the essays and
as a photographer. Collectively, they provide
book: “The poem and the painting fused
plates provide an engaging look at how
an invaluable resource for anyone who
into something greater: a meditation
various American artists have captured
has ever wondered how a photographer
linking thought and feeling, the literary
our complex response to the night.—RT
realizes a personal vision, finding that seed
image
and
and the visual.”—RT
text
of inspiration and then discovering how to engage with an audience.” —JM
d e c e MBER / j a n u a r y
2015-16
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