Making Strange
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The Modernist Photobook in France
Kim Sichel
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Format: HC - Paper over BoardPrice: $65.00
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A richly illustrated look at some of the most important photobooks of the 20th century
France experienced a golden age of photobook production from the late 1920s through the 1950s. Avant-garde experiments in photography, text, design, and printing, within the context of a growing modernist publishing scene, contributed to an outpouring of brilliantly designed books. Making Strange offers a detailed examination of photobook innovation in France, exploring seminal publications by Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Pierre Jahan, William Klein, and Germaine Krull. Kim Sichel argues that these books both held a mirror to their time and created an unprecedented modernist visual language. Sichel provides an engaging analysis through the lens of materiality, emphasizing the photobook as an object with which the viewer interacts haptically as well as visually. Rich in historical context and beautifully illustrated, Making Strange reasserts the role of French photobooks in the history of modern art.
France experienced a golden age of photobook production from the late 1920s through the 1950s. Avant-garde experiments in photography, text, design, and printing, within the context of a growing modernist publishing scene, contributed to an outpouring of brilliantly designed books. Making Strange offers a detailed examination of photobook innovation in France, exploring seminal publications by Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Pierre Jahan, William Klein, and Germaine Krull. Kim Sichel argues that these books both held a mirror to their time and created an unprecedented modernist visual language. Sichel provides an engaging analysis through the lens of materiality, emphasizing the photobook as an object with which the viewer interacts haptically as well as visually. Rich in historical context and beautifully illustrated, Making Strange reasserts the role of French photobooks in the history of modern art.
Kim Sichel is associate professor of the history of photography and modern art at Boston University.
“Well informed and fluidly written, Making Strange is a thorough and engaging account of the production and reception of those uniquely splendid French photobooks of the years 1928 to 1958.”—Romy Golan, author of Muralnomad:The Paradox of Wall Painting, Europe 1927–1957
“Making Strange is a critical and heavily researched investigation into pioneering photobooks. Its focus on France, rather than the usual suspects of Germany, North America, and Japan, is one of its most important contributions.”—Andrés Mario Zervigón, Rutgers University
Winner of a grant from the Millard Meiss Publication Fund of CAA
Shortlisted for the 2021 DeLong Book History Book Prize, sponsored by The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing
ISBN: 9780300246186
Publication Date: March 17, 2020
Publication Date: March 17, 2020
224 pages, 8 1/2 x 11
120 color + 20 b/w illus.
120 color + 20 b/w illus.
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
