Book cover of American Photography (Oxford History of Art)

Book description

This lively new survey offers fresh insights into 150 years of American photography, placing it in its cultural context for the first time. Orvell examinines this fascinating subject through portraiture and landscape photography, eamily albums and memory, and analyses the particularly 'American' way in which American photographers have viewed the…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked American Photography (Oxford History of Art) as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This book is a lively, questioning, and comprehensive survey of American photography, from its beginnings to the present. It analyzes achievements in each of the genres, from portraiture, through landscape, to documentary, fashion, etc. It treats individual photographic artists, from Avedon to Weegee, from the views of New York taken by Berenice Abbott to J.T. Zealy’s likenesses of enslaved Africans. American Photography is always concerned to underscore what photographs have to tell us about major aspects of American culture: race and ethnicity, gender and identity, business and technology, religion, and region. It also has numerous well-reproduced images; illuminating sidebars…

From Mick's list on American photography.

If you love American Photography (Oxford History of Art)...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

Want books like American Photography (Oxford History of Art)?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 80 books like American Photography (Oxford History of Art).

Browse books like American Photography (Oxford History of Art)

Book cover of Print the Legend: Photography and the American West
Book cover of Reading American Photographs: Images as History-Mathew Brady to Walker Evans
Book cover of Picturing an Exhibition: The Family of Man and 1950s America

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,367

readers submitted
so far, will you?

📚 If you like American Photography (Oxford History of Art), you might also like...

Book cover of Pioneer Paddles of the Colonial South

Pioneer Paddles of the Colonial South by William D. Auman,

Award-winning novelist William Auman, author of If Trees Could Testify..., takes the reader on a time-traveling odyssey featuring 345 bodies of water in six states within the historical context through which they unfold.

Journey into remaining Colonial-era wilderness with stories of pirate treasure, epic frontiersmen, Indigenous Peoples, and Revolutionary…

Book cover of A Winter's Disgrace

A Winter's Disgrace by Kathleen Buckley,

Cyprian, a marquess’s heir, will not let his mother choose his next bride. Leaving a house party in a blizzard to avoid her stratagems, he finds a woman trudging half frozen toward the London road. Rosamund fled disgrace, hoping to reach the one person who might shelter her, but even…

5 book lists we think you will like!