Peter C. Bunnell has been a major force in shaping the discourse about photography's past and present. during his thirty-some years as a profoundly influential professor and curator at Princeton University. Most of the thirty-four essays are devoted to individual (predominantly American) photographers, with the balance written about three key galleries that played a crucial early role in the recognition and marketing of modern photography. Bunnell has sustained deep and mutually respectful relationships with photographers ranging from Minor White to Ruth Bernhard, Aaron Siskind, and Jerry Uelsmann. His understanding of their work and clear-eyed grasp of twentieth-century photography makes this an enlightening overview of a field that has undergone extraordinary changes during the period chronicled in the book. Bunnell offers a unique personal perspective on the world of art photography as it morphed from a small group of practitioners whose work was collected by an even smaller group of devotees to the supercharged international marketplace it has become.
Photographers: Diane Arbus, Ruth Bernhard, Harry Callahan, Paul Caponigro, Walter Chappell, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Elliott Erwitt, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Emmet Gowin, Eikoh Hosoe, Tokio Ito, Gertrude Käsebier, Michael Kenna, Michiko Kon, Ray K. Metzker, Lisette Model, Barbara Morgan, Wright Morris, John Pfahl, Edward Ranney, Aaron Siskind, Alfred Stieglitz, Jerry N. Uelsmann, Edward Weston, Clarence H. White, and Minor White
Peter C. Bunnell’s books include Minor White: The Eye That Shapes and Photography at Princeton: Celebrating 25 Years of Collecting and Teaching the History of Photography. Retired as the David Hunter McAlpin Professor of the History of Photography and Modern Art at Princeton University, where he also held a post as faculty curator of photography at the Art Museum, he currently serves on the Visiting Committee for the Department of Photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and remains active at Princeton University and the Art Museum.