Gilles Mora Books

The photography revolution in America during the sixties and seventies was as groundbreaking as the music of the era. Between Robert Frank's influential "The Americans" in 1958 and the emergence of postmodernist Cindy Sherman in the early 1980s, a group of photographers sought to create a distinct photographic language that transformed documentary photography and expanded the expressive potential of the medium. These artists, embodying the spirit of a dynamic modernity, embraced the medium's limitless possibilities and dedicated themselves to revitalizing it through innovative approaches. Gilles Mora introduces readers to these visionary photographers and the curators, critics, and collectors who supported their ascent in the art world. Inspired by Walker Evans, this vibrant community includes prominent figures like Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus, and William Eggleston, among others, along with influential gallery owner Lee D. Witkin and renowned MoMA curator John Szarkowski. Acknowledging the significance of their contributions, Mora offers a personal perspective on this captivating chapter in modern photography, presenting both a critique and a visual anthology of key works and artists.

Between the World Wars, America's Great Depression spawned the need for many public works agencies, in particular the Farm Security Administration (FSA). This book presents the FSA's catalogue of documentary photography - a collection of images documenting America's cultural and economic conditions.

Considered one of the most significant painters of the period between the two world wars and founder of the precisionist school, Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) was also one of the pivotal photgraphers of the modernist movement in America. His direct style can be likened to that of his contemporaries Paul Strand, Edward Weston and Edward Steichen and he is probably best known for documenting the transformation of the American urban landscape (in both his photos and paintings), and for an early series of photos that pay homage to his 19th-century farmhouse in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.