After Weegee
Essays on Contemporary Jewish American Photographers
by Daniel Morris
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Pub Date Aug 01 2011 | Archive Date Sep 01 2012
Description
Examining a range of styles from the gritty vernacular sensibility of Weegee (Arthur Fellig) to the glitzy theatricality of Annie Leibovitz, Morris takes a thoughtful look at ten American photographers, exploring the artists' often ambivalent relationships to their Jewish backgrounds. Going against the grain of most criticism on the subject, Morris argues that it is difficult to label Jewish American photographers as unequivocal "outsiders" or "insiders" with respect to mainstream American culture. He shows it is equally difficult to assign a characteristic style to such a varied group whose backgrounds range from self-taught photographers to those trained in art school. In eclectic ways, however, the contemporary photographers highlighted in After Weegee carry on the social justice and documentary tradition associated with Sid Grossman, Aaron Siskind, and the primarily Jewish Photo League of the 1930s by chronicling the downside of the Reagan revolution of the 1980s.
Rather than record movements or trends in current Jewish American photography, Morris focuses in-depth on the work of Bruce Davidson, Jim Goldberg, Mel Rosenthal, Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Allen Ginsberg, Annie Leibovitz, Tyagan Miller, Aaron Siskind, and Marc Asnin. These photographers share a tendency toward socially informed expression and an interest in self-expression via the operations of photography, inevitably shaped by histories of socially conscious or documentary imaging. Moving between photo history, cultural history, and close readings of the images, Morris traces a common thread among contemporary secular Jewish American photographers, artists who link the construction of personal identity to the representation of history. After Weegee broadens our understanding of the relationship between Jewishness and contemporary photography, challenging us to take a fresh look at much of what has come to be canonized as modern, postwar, and art photography.
6 x 9, 320 pages, 62 black-and-white photographs, notes, works cited, index
Advance Praise
"Taking up the provocative issue of the relationshipbetween Jews and photographic practice in the U.S., After Weegee ranges across an impressively varied group ofphotographers and contexts, exploring the ongoing effects of a foundationaltradition of documentary engagement in the work of postwar Jewish-Americanphotographers."- Sara Blair,Professor, Department of English, University of Michigan
"Opening with an inspired reading of Weegee'suncanny photo-textual books as emblems of cultural nomadism, Morris argues thatpost-war, secular Jewish photographers both extend and ironize the 1930stradition of concerned documentary. These artists, Morris convincinglycontends, break down the conceptual oppositions between photographer andsubject, self and other, form and politics that so often organize the way wethink about photographic images. A compelling book and a welcome interventioninto the history of American photography." -Joseph Entin, CityUniversity of New York
"In After Weegee, Daniel Morrishas written an important and dazzling series of essays on Jewishphotographers. Eschewing any single grand narrative, Morris acknowledgesthe many varieties of Jewish identity and explores the multiplicity of waysthat "Jewishness" has expressed itself in photographers as diverse as Weegee, LeeFriedlander, Diane Arbus, Aaron Siskind, Allen Ginsberg, Annie Liebovitz, andothers. After Weegee adds a fascinating dimension to ourunderstanding of the sources of contemporary photography and opens up manyfurther issues for research and debate. " Miles Orvell Professor of English & American Studies Temple University
"After Weegee introduces readers to anextraordinary group of fascinating American Jewish photographers shifting ourfocus from the question of who or what is Jewish in a photograph to howphotographers do their work. Morris interrogates the motivations and desiresthat animate the careers of Bruce Davidson, Aaron Siskind, Jim Goldberg, MelRosenthal, Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Alan, Ginsberg, Annie Liebovitz, TyganMiller and Marc Asnin drawing thematic connections to some of Weegee's own mostpowerful preoccupations." - Laura Levitt, Professor of Religion, Jewish Studies and Gender, Temple University
"Daniel Morris' lovely book reads in theseimages a history of Jewish meanings without falling into the limiting trapsthat have dogged so many critics in the past. Here "Jewish images" are notlimited to depictions of the Holocaust, or of Jewish rituals, or overtly Jewishsubject matter. Instead, Morris explores these artists coming toterms-sometimes intensely uneasy terms-with contemporary Jewish identity in amultiplicity of ways. He never loses sight of their ambivalences, theirpowerful identifications, their quests for social justice or celebrity or theironic. The readings are elegant, insightful, rich, and thoroughlyabsorbing."- Daniel Itzkovitz, Stonehill College
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9780815609872 |
| PRICE | 29.95 |
| PAGES | 320 |
