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In direct rejection of the point-and-click tricks of digital photography, a renegade group of artists have turned their attention to near-obscure 19th-century processes from cyanotypes to daguerreotypes. Featuring 120 color images and works by 60 artists, this is the only book to chart this worldwide revival. The members of the Antiquarian Avant-Garde, who include Adam Fuss, Sally Mann, and Jayne Hinds Bidaut, seek to reengage the physical, hands-on facets of photography, and to celebrate the diverse, idiosyncratic results.

An essay by Chuck Close and an interview with Sally Mann enhance Lyle Rexer's lively text, which highlights the importance of the new movement for art and photography. A glossary gives detailed insight into such diverse methods as daguerreotypes, photograms, tintypes, and gum bichromates.

Some fear that the photographic community's widespread and controversial adoption of digital processes will lead to technical standardization and numbing artistic uniformity. Fortunately, whatever the future of photography, we can all be grateful for the artists, such as those covered in this book, who are investigating and exploiting its past. This is a stunning survey of current work by inventive artists employing pre-20th century means to address postmodern and contemporary issues and aesthetics. The 60 artists, including Sally Mann and Chuck Close, utilize an array of processes (e.g., wet-plate photography) and applications (e.g., emulsion on steel) to create images that are dependent on light and time and that, as Mann states, "cost you dearly in time and energy." The 120 images include luscious cyanotype prints on various materials, enduring daguerreotypes, dreamy ambrotype prints, and eerie tintypes. An informative and accessible text by photography writer Rexer gives historic and theoretical perspective, and the brief technical glossary serves as a primer for the novice. Highly recommended for large academic and public collections, this is also an affordable resource for smaller libraries.-Debora Miller, Minneapolis Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.