Szarkowski J. Photography Until Now

The Museum of Modern Art, 1989. — 352 p.This new history of photography, published to accompany an anniversary exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, takes its structure from a close examination of the interaction of technical change and artistic expression in a medium nowjust 150 years old. No other book on photography describes so clearly the development of the medium, and specifically the pictorial implications of a series of inventions that have shaped the art and craft of photography and the cultural role of the photographer.John Szarkowski, one of the most respected writers in the field, begins with prehistory"—photography as a logical continuation of four centuries of the Western pictorial tradition—and concludes with the contemporary period, as television and video affect the directions and practices of still photography.