A Maritime Album: 100 Photographs and Their Stories

by John Szarkowski, kamens Richard Benson

Photographs from the archives of the Mariners' Museum depict shipbuilding, pleasure craft, naval confrontations, shipwrecks, and icebreakers

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

246 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

John Szarkowski was an American photographer and curator best known for his role as the director of the Museum of Modern Art’s Photography Department from 1962 through 1991. “Photography is the easiest thing in the world if one is willing to accept pictures that are flaccid, limp, bland, banal, indiscriminately informative, and pointless,” he once explained. “But if one insists in a photograph that is both complex and vigorous it is almost impossible.”

Born Thaddeus John Szarkowski on December 18, 1925 in Ashland, WI, he went on receive a degree in art history from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1948. After working as a museum photographer at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, he moved to Buffalo to teach photography. The artist then relocated to Chicago, where he worked on his photobook The Idea of Louis Sullivan (1956). After his appointment at MoMA in 1962, Szkarowski would help launch the careers of Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, and William Eggleston, among several others during his tenure. He also published acclaimed books on the history of photography, including The Photographer’s Eye (1966) and Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art (1973).

After retiring from the museum in 1991, Szarkowski resumed his own career in photography. He died on July 7, 2007 in Pittsfield, MA. Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, among others.

Reviews

[Mark Petrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Szarkowski was one of the finest curator/writers of photography. He brought such broad intelligence and sensitivity to his appreciation for pictures.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some wonderful and haunting photos here that will really draw you in.
The format is a one page description, facing a full page photo.
All, black and white photography.
There are some expected, classic maritime photos, but there are many photos that surprise you and make you react- "What do we have here"?
The writer includes quite a bit "social" commentary on how the world has changed since the photo was taken, and some of these opinions are a bit overdone and seem to detract from the purpose of the book.

[Artie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The black and white photos from the early days of photography up to the 1050s are stunning and fascinating. The text is occasionally informative, occasionally bad but not bad enough to detract from the photos.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some lovely photographs with captions, At least some if not all the photos are available from the national archives. Another nice book made obsolete by the internet.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite interesting!