Keith F. Davis – författare

This stunning volume represents a major photo-historical discovery: it is the first book on Homer Page (1918–1985), a brilliant but overlooked photographer active in the late 1940s and 50s. It focuses on his previously unpublished photographs of New York taken while a Guggenheim Fellow from 1949 to 1950. First recognized by Ansel Adams in 1944, California-born Page exhibited in a major show of young artists at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1946. Four years later, he was invited to participate in MoMA’s seminal photography symposium, alongside 10 other prominent photographers, including Walker Evans, Irving Penn, and Aaron Siskind.   In photographs that echo those of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Robert Frank, Page uniquely synthesized documentary and artistic concerns. His work as a Guggenheim Fellow––which depicts pedestrians in motion, friends and family members conversing, commuters, children playing, political rallies and protests, and isolated figures resting and watching––offers a fascinating look at New York during the late 1940s and represents the culmination of Page’s most important work.  The Photographs of Homer Page features a plate section of these compelling and often poignant images together with texts by the artist, a bibliography, and an essay by noted scholar Keith F. Davis examining Page’s life and career––including his connections with Lange, Nancy and Beaumont Newhall, and Edouard Steichen. Distributed for The Nelson-Atkins Museum of ArtExhibition Schedule:The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (February 14–June 7, 2009)

Best known for his modernist paintings and prints, the multitalented artist Ralston Crawford (1906–1978) maintained a deep and intensive interest in photography throughout his career, using the camera as a tool of both documentary and artistic expression. This exquisitely produced publication provides a fresh, comprehensive look at Crawford’s photographs from 1938 through the mid-1970s, including both well-known works and previously unpublished images. Some of his photographic images served as the basis for paintings and prints, but many more were made for their own sake as photographs, capturing a wide variety of subjects, from pristine industrial forms to the vibrant street life and musical culture of New Orleans. This volume locates Crawford’s photographic production in the context of his overall artistic career and within the creative currents of his time, enhancing our understanding of Crawford as an artist and serving as the best and most up-to-date study of his photographs.   Distributed for The Hall Family Foundation in association with The Nelson-Atkins Museum of ArtExhibition Schedule:The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City(10/26/18–04/07/19)