Available Now!! Click Here For Details! |
 |
Who We Were: A Snapshot History of America by Michael Williams, Richard Cahan, and Nicholas Osborn |
Who We Were: A Snapshot History of America
Reviews
"Who We Were is the most intimate kind of history--the past with all the laughs and chills and hesitations left in, and all the unresolved contradictions as well. It's a lovely collection of amateur photographs, some of them truly inadvertent in their glory, some potential candidates for high-art stature if they were matted and framed. Overall it's as close to a true self-portrait of the American people as you're likely to find between covers."
-Luc Sante, author of Lowlife: The Lures and Snares of Old New York
"A perfect sum-uppance of the twists and turns our country has taken to lead us to what appears to be an almost certain dead end, or at least some serious roadwork. Despite my being an "artist," I've remained dubious of the claim that a picture is worth a thousand words, but the few hundred in this book pretty much cover everything we Americans have undergone in the past century with crisp clarity and everyday ambiguity. Beautiful!"
-Chris Ware, author of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth
"With the medium of photography, anyone can make a masterpiece. The cell-phone snapshooter is just as likely of capturing the next iconic image as the celebrated photojournalist. The higher challenge, the art – if you will, is assembling a collection of great images. With Who We Were: A Snapshot History of America, Richard Cahan and Nicholas Osborn have done just that. From hundred of brilliant fragments, they’ve pieced together a breathtaking view of the puzzle of America."
Alec Soth, Photographer. Author of Sleeping by the Mississippi
"Ever since 1888 and the advent of George Eastman’s first Kodak, Americans have been avidly taking pictures to record their lives, creating an enormous, rarely tapped archive. Williams, Richard Cahan, and Nicholas Osborn spent 10 years looking at more than a million snapshots, ultimately choosing 350, each with a “unique ability to help tell the American story.” After tracking down the who, what, where, and when of each striking, amusing, or haunting image, the authors organized these everyday astonishments thematically and made every page spread a study in unexpected parallels and contrasts. Beginning with a lovely series taken from “a surrey with the fringe on top” and moving forward into the atomic age, they present scenes of now vanishing wilderness and rural life, people at work and play, and calamities ranging from an eviction to a flood, tornado, dust storm, Ku Klux Klan parade, and war. Assembled with an eye for vitality, irony, and revelation, this splendid American photo album vividly chronicles our progress and tragedies, ingenuity and spirit."
-Donna Seaman, Booklist
"The book is stunning! The photographs so unexpected. The collection relevatory. It's like a major archeological find, a portal into American life over the last century."
-Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America
...an irresistible blend of historical material and voyeuristic pleasures.
-Publisher's Weekly
On-Line reviews
you'll find a review by Raul Gutierrez (of the great photography blog Heading East) here.
A review by Matt Damsker for iPhoto Central can be found here.
...More to come!!
Click here to place your order