Looking at Atget

Renowned for his alluring and provocative photographs of the monuments, interiors, streets, and people of Paris, Eugène Atget (18571927) was fascinated with the myriad materials, textures, surfaces, and details of his subjects. Although not well known in his own lifetime, his influential work now appears in almost all the world’s major museums. This book, replete with exquisite reproductions of more than one hundred of Atget’s photographs, features selections from the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s highly prized collection, including at least ten previously unpublished images and two albums in which the photographer stored his own work.Peter Barberie explores the earliest and most compelling accounts of Atget’s photography and recounts the efforts undertaken by photographer Berenice Abbott and art dealer Julien Levyeach with a different perspective on Atget’s workto bring his photographs to the United States and to promote his legacy. By analyzing how Atget assembled and organized his own albums, Barberie also offers fresh insights into how the photographer may have viewed his own work.

Arts & Photography

Barberie, Peter

Individual Artists

Yale University Press

An exquisite volume celebrating one of America’s premier collections of modern photography Julien Levy (1906–1981) was one of the most influential proponents of photography and Surrealism during the second quarter of the twentieth century. In his gallery, which operated from 1931 to 1949, Levy hosted the first New York exhibition devoted to Surrealism and presented early solo exhibitions of many photographers now considered iconic in their field, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Clarence John Laughlin, George Platt Lynes, and Lee Miller. He also developed close relationships with artists Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, and Man Ray, among others, and is credited with discovering Joseph Cornell. This handsome book is published to commemorate the centenary of Levy’s birth and to celebrate the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s major acquisition of more than 2,500 photographs from his collection. With some 300 illustrations, including many unfamiliar works by well-known artists, the catalogue presents a stunning survey of this collection, long hidden from public view. Essays illuminate Levy’s pivotal role in promoting both photography and Surrealism in the United States and his impact as a gallerist and tastemaker at a crucial juncture in the development of photography. The publication also includes illustrations of rich archival material related to Levy’s gallery and collection.

Dreaming in Black and White: Photography at the Julien Levy Gallery

Ware, Katherine

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Dreaming in Black And White: Photography at the Julien Levy Gallery

Julien Levy (1906â€“1981) was one of the most influential proponents of photography and Surrealism during the second quarter of the twentieth century. In his gallery, which operated from 1931 to 1949, Levy hosted the first New York exhibition devoted to Surrealism and presented early solo exhibitions of many photographers now considered iconic in their field, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Clarence John Laughlin, George Platt Lynes, and Lee Miller. He also developed close relationships with artists Salvador DalÃ, Max Ernst, and Man Ray, among others, and is credited with discovering Joseph Cornell. This handsome book is published to commemorate the centenary of Levyâ€™s birth and to celebrate the Philadelphia Museum of Artâ€™s major acquisition of more than 2,500 photographs from his collection. With some 300 illustrations, including many unfamiliar works by well-known artists, the catalogue presents a stunning survey of this collection, long hidden from public view. Essays illuminate Levyâ€™s pivotal role in promoting both photography and Surrealism in the United States and his impact as a gallerist and tastemaker at a crucial juncture in the development of photography. The publication also includes illustrations of rich archival material related to Levyâ€™s gallery and collection.

Photography & Video

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Product Description 
A wide-ranging retrospective that reveals a master printer’s own photographs to be technically brilliant work of remarkable breadth and complexity This book presents the first in-depth survey of photographs by Richard Benson (1943–2017), who approached photography as a thrilling set of technical challenges and used the medium to craft profound depictions of people, the spaces of their lives and work, and the products of their labor. An essay by curator Peter Barberie interweaves examination of Benson’s photographic practices with the story of his ideas, writing, and reproductive printing, while photographer An-My Lê, Benson’s former student, offers her perspective on his teaching, family life, and art. The book begins with his stunning darkroom prints in silver and platinum and follows his trajectory toward extraordinary digital photography, culminating in later color prints that are at once elegant and garish, representing the contemporary world in vivid detail. Benson’s democratic eye also extended to human subjects: he photographed loved ones and strangers with extraordinary attention, and directed the same gaze to the buildings and landscapes entwined with individual lives. 
 About the Author 
Peter Barberie is Brodsky Curator of Photographs, Alfred Stieglitz Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Richard Benson

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, David Lebe (b. 1948) pushed the boundaries of photography, creating nuanced and visually complex images using innovative techniques. Often enhancing his prints with hand-coloring, Lebe made experimental pinhole photographs, photograms (cameraless photographs), and light drawings (pictures whose primary light source is a handheld flashlight). Many of Lebe’s photographs explore his identity as a gay man. His more meditative work from the 1990s and beyond includes diverse series dealing with the AIDS crisis and his personal struggle with the disease. This sumptuously illustrated volume offers the first retrospective survey of this groundbreaking artist. Featuring more than 100 images by Lebe along with comparative works by other artists, the book includes an insightful essay that situates Lebe’s photographs both within the context of the Philadelphia art scene in which he was active and in relation to the practice of nationally recognized figures such as Barbara Blondeau, Ray K. Metzker, and David Wojnarowicz.

Long Light: Photographs by David Lebe

History & Criticism

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Books by Barberie, Peter

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Barberie, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Looking at Atget

Dreaming in Black and White: Photography at the Julien Levy Gallery

Dreaming in Black And White: Photography at the Julien Levy Gallery

Dreaming in Black And White: Photography at the Julien Levy Gallery

Richard Benson

Long Light: Photographs by David Lebe