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Cameraworks
A commentary by the "New Yorker" art critic accompanies 117 photographic collages by the celebrated and popular artist, whose work in this medium reflects a synthesis of observation, panorama, and impression
- GenresArtPhotographyNonfiction
279 pages, Hardcover
First published September 12, 1984
157 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Weschler
83 books123 followersLawrence Weschler, a graduate of Cowell College of the University of California at Santa Cruz (1974), was for over twenty years (1981-2002) a staff writer at The New Yorker, where his work shuttled between political tragedies and cultural comedies. He is a two-time winner of the George Polk Award (for Cultural Reporting in 1988 and Magazine Reporting in 1992) and was also a recipient of Lannan Literary Award (1998).
His books of political reportage include The Passion of Poland (1984); A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers (1990); and Calamities of Exile: Three Nonfiction Novellas (1998).
His “Passions and Wonders” series currently comprises Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin (1982); David Hockney’s Cameraworks (1984); Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder (1995); A Wanderer in the Perfect City: Selected Passion Pieces (1998) Boggs: A Comedy of Values (1999); Robert Irwin: Getty Garden (2002); Vermeer in Bosnia (2004); and Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences (February 2006). Mr. Wilson was shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Everything that Rises received the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.
Recent books include a considerably expanded edition of Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, comprising thirty years of conversations with Robert Irwin; a companion volume, True to Life: Twenty Five Years of Conversation with David Hockney; Liza Lou (a monograph out of Rizzoli); Tara Donovan, the catalog for the artist’s recent exhibition at Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Art, and Deborah Butterfield, the catalog for a survey of the artist’s work at the LA Louver Gallery. His latest addition to “Passions and Wonders,” the collection Uncanny Valley: Adventures in the Narrative, came out from Counterpoint in October 2011.
Weschler has taught, variously, at Princeton, Columbia, UCSC, Bard, Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, and NYU, where he is now distinguished writer in residence at the Carter Journalism Institute.
He recently graduated to director emeritus of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, where he has been a fellow since 1991 and was director from 2001-2013, and from which base he had tried to start his own semiannual journal of writing and visual culture, Omnivore. He is also the artistic director emeritus, still actively engaged, with the Chicago Humanities Festival, and curator for New York Live Ideas, an annual body-based humanities collaboration with Bill T. Jones and his NY Live Arts. He is a contributing editor to McSweeney’s, the Threepeeny Review, and The Virginia Quarterly Review; curator at large of the DVD quarterly Wholphin; (recently retired) chair of the Sundance (formerly Soros) Documentary Film Fund; and director of the Ernst Toch Society, dedicated to the promulgation of the music of his grandfather, the noted Weimar emigre composer. He recently launched “Pillow of Air,” a monthly “Amble through the worlds of the visual” column in The Believer.
(from www.lawrenceweschler.com)
His books of political reportage include The Passion of Poland (1984); A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers (1990); and Calamities of Exile: Three Nonfiction Novellas (1998).
His “Passions and Wonders” series currently comprises Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin (1982); David Hockney’s Cameraworks (1984); Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder (1995); A Wanderer in the Perfect City: Selected Passion Pieces (1998) Boggs: A Comedy of Values (1999); Robert Irwin: Getty Garden (2002); Vermeer in Bosnia (2004); and Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences (February 2006). Mr. Wilson was shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Everything that Rises received the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.
Recent books include a considerably expanded edition of Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, comprising thirty years of conversations with Robert Irwin; a companion volume, True to Life: Twenty Five Years of Conversation with David Hockney; Liza Lou (a monograph out of Rizzoli); Tara Donovan, the catalog for the artist’s recent exhibition at Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Art, and Deborah Butterfield, the catalog for a survey of the artist’s work at the LA Louver Gallery. His latest addition to “Passions and Wonders,” the collection Uncanny Valley: Adventures in the Narrative, came out from Counterpoint in October 2011.
Weschler has taught, variously, at Princeton, Columbia, UCSC, Bard, Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, and NYU, where he is now distinguished writer in residence at the Carter Journalism Institute.
He recently graduated to director emeritus of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, where he has been a fellow since 1991 and was director from 2001-2013, and from which base he had tried to start his own semiannual journal of writing and visual culture, Omnivore. He is also the artistic director emeritus, still actively engaged, with the Chicago Humanities Festival, and curator for New York Live Ideas, an annual body-based humanities collaboration with Bill T. Jones and his NY Live Arts. He is a contributing editor to McSweeney’s, the Threepeeny Review, and The Virginia Quarterly Review; curator at large of the DVD quarterly Wholphin; (recently retired) chair of the Sundance (formerly Soros) Documentary Film Fund; and director of the Ernst Toch Society, dedicated to the promulgation of the music of his grandfather, the noted Weimar emigre composer. He recently launched “Pillow of Air,” a monthly “Amble through the worlds of the visual” column in The Believer.
(from www.lawrenceweschler.com)
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 28, 2018
I am a fan of David Hockney's The photocollages in this book are spectacular; I had never seen any of them before reading it.
The photos are of people, home interiors, nature, and a variety of things. Some of the collages are one big photo that’s divided up into pieces, some are many photos put together to make up one picture, and a few are scattered photos made up to make an irregular design. Hockey labeled many of the photos specifying the subject(s). The accompanying text by Lawrence Wescher is not lengthly, but gives helpful background on how Hockey created these.
This is art that’s completely accessible and it’s the kind of project I’d like to do myself and with children too, with digital photos of course, and possibly including other media as well.
The photos are of people, home interiors, nature, and a variety of things. Some of the collages are one big photo that’s divided up into pieces, some are many photos put together to make up one picture, and a few are scattered photos made up to make an irregular design. Hockey labeled many of the photos specifying the subject(s). The accompanying text by Lawrence Wescher is not lengthly, but gives helpful background on how Hockey created these.
This is art that’s completely accessible and it’s the kind of project I’d like to do myself and with children too, with digital photos of course, and possibly including other media as well.
October 7, 2009
Gorgeous. Like looking at life with the eyes of a bee.
October 21, 2020
At one point I thought that Hockney designed the innovative album cover of Talking Heads' "More Songs About Buildings And Food". The cover features a series of treated polaroids assembled as a group portrait, but the individual photos look they could be paintings. Hockney was not involved. I don't know if the band preceded Hockney with the concept. I could spend hours looking at Hockney's rich polaroid collages. Every piece is unique. As I followed the photographic "path" in each portrait, I found every individual photo is a work of art as well as in the context of the entire piece.
November 30, 2018
Motion photography. He has an extraordinary taste for shape with color, especially blue, pink, red and yellow. I‘m more in favor of his portrait works than landscape.
January 31, 2011
This superb book covers Hockney's photo-collage "joiners". The works are often quite innovative and interesting images.
May 29, 2016
One of my top ten photo books, Hockney opened up photography with this book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews