What Was True: The Photographs and Notebooks of William Gedney

by William Gedney (Photographer), Margaret Sartor (Editor)

Published here for the first time is the extraordinary and stirring collection of photographs and writings of an enigmatic photographer. A retrospective exhibition of Gedney's work opens this month (December 1999) at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. 145 duotones.

Genres: Photography, Art, Nonfiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1999

Reviews

[Daniel]

Gedney's work is beautiful and authentic, a word everyone today seems to be using to describe their work even if it's not true. His portraits in Kentucky are some of my favorites.

[Jeff Jackson]

Four and a half stars. Anyone who's interested in discovering the creative germ of Geoff Dyer's novel "Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi" will be interested in Gedney's photos of India and his notebooks about his time there. Beyond that, Gedney's images of hand-to-mouth hippie communes and rural Kentucky family life have a startling intimacy and immediacy that make these potentially stale subjects seem fresh. I could've used more photos and less notebooks, but this collection makes the case for Gedney's immense visual talents nonetheless.

[Aaron the Pink Donut]

I like this book allot. my only complaint is that it is just a small glimpse at the life and work.