Author Description

With the ascent of multimedia art, feminist and postcolonial theory, and the collapse of the art gallery's "white walls," the 1970s saw countless upheavals and shifts in the paradigms of Western art--upheavals that were recorded by some of today's finest photographers. The mingling of art and socio-political change in the 1970s is a theme throughout this superb volume, a groundbreaking consideration of one decade's art through the lenses of its greatest photographers. The 70s includes about ten photographs by each of the selected artists: Alberto García-Alix, Allan Sekula, Ana Mendieta, Anders Petersen, Carlos Pazos, Christian Boltanski, Cindy Sherman, Claudia Andujar, David Goldblatt, Douglas Huebler, Ed van der Elsken, Eugene Richards, Fina Miralles, Gabriele and Helmut Nothhelfer, Hans-Peter Feldmann, J.D. Okhai Ojeikere, Karen Knorr, Kohei Yoshiyuki, Malick Sidibé, Sophie Calle, Victor Burgin, Viktor Kolár and William Eggleston. Alongside this parade of great photography, The 70s also includes two illustrated essays by relevant artists of the time, as well as presentation texts of the participating artists and a selection of classic writings on photography published in this decade, by Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, John Berger, Allan Sekula and Victor Burgin. Finally, it supplies a detailed chronology of socio-political transformations and the evolution of photography, illustrated with original documents and news media reproductions.