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Title |
Photography-The definitive visual history |
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Author |
Tom Ang |
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Editions |
Dorlin Kindersley |
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Year |
2014 |
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Format |
31 x 26 cm |
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Pages |
400 |
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Price |
€ 29/25 GBP |
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Cover |
Rigid plastic |
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ISBN |
9781409346456 |
Tom Ang is quite known for his books and manuals dedicated to digital photography but, this time, presents a book that sets out to retrace the history of photography in pictures: not the first and certainly very probably not the last; However, this story (short, according to the author) brings with it many advantages first of all the rich iconographic apparatus.
The pictures are really many and blend very well, even from a Visual point of view, with descriptive text in English on the chosen format, perhaps a bit cumbersome for those who want to keep the volume in your hands but perfectly timed for the purpose and to present the various arguments in paragraphs two-page Compact with everything at a glance.
The volume is divided into eight main sections in chronological order, from the beginning of 1825 until the present day, each of which is in turn split into more paragraphs (as mentioned above, two pages) that will delve into the various elements relating to the reference period; This is the most interesting part of the book, then, not for nothing traces the historic steps but select a canonical set of topics considered most significant by the author: you can find agree or disagree about the choices (personally, I see as a gap in the absence of a paragraph dedicated to Weegee), but the reading is still interesting and full of ideas for further exploration; also the fact that consecutive arguments are closely linked with each other makes the usability of the text particularly pleasant. Are taken into consideration, of course, the salient historical moments but many paragraphs are devoted to individual photographer, or to a particular type of camera, a production process or image photography and everything is clear and easy to read, with some brief reference inserts other insights embedded in pages.
Photography-The definitive visual history is available only in English, as is often the case for this kind of issues and from the point of view of construction is appreciated, in addition to the already mentioned, wide format for the printing and paper quality, allowing you to bring out the best (as far as a generalist book can offer) the present and many images in particular, full-page ones. Approaching the time of the gift, it might be a good idea.