The Last Photographic Heroes

The photography that Americans invented in the sixties and seventies was as innovative, bold, and vital as their music. In the wild years between the publication of Robert Frank's landmark The Americans in 1958 and the discovery of the postmodernist Cindy Sherman in the early 1980s, the photographers featured in this book embarked on their own personal quests for an independent and unique photographic language that would redefine the scope and content of documentary photography as well as the expressive potential of the photographic image. Real heroes of a challenging, dynamic modernity, they believed in a medium with endless possibilities and devoted themselves, with an abundance of creative energy, to reinvigorating it in a wide range of inventive ways. GIlles Mora introduces us to the work of these heroic photographers, and to the curators, gallery owners, critics, and collectors who facilitated their rise in the art world and the marketplace. Members of an authentic artistic community, inspired by the legacy of Walker Evans, they include major figures such as Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus, Les Krims, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, BIll Owens, Robert Adams, Henry Wessel Jr., William Eggleston, and Joel Meyerowitz, along with the gallery owner Lee D. Witkin and the great MoMA curator John Szarkowski. This generation of photographers knew it was remarkable. Today, with Giles Mora as a guide, we can look back on it with greater appreciation. The Last Photographic Heroes offers a personal perspective on this lively and engaging chapter in modern photography, presenting not only a critique but also a veritable visual anthology of major photographic works and artists. -- from dust jacket.