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Ben Shahn's American Scene

ISBN-13: 9780252035302
Publisher: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
Imprint: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
By John Raeburn
Price: AUD $239.00
Stock: 0 in stock
Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
Local release date: 14/10/2010
Format: Hardback 208 pages Weight: 0g
Categories: Photography & photographs [AJ]

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Reviews
Google Preview: The paintings, murals, and graphics of Ben Shahn (1898-1969) have made him one of the most heralded American artists of the twentieth century, but during the 1930s he was also among the America's premier photographers. Much of his photographic work was sponsored by the New Deal's Farm Security Administration, where his colleagues included Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. ''Ben Shahn's American Scene: Photographs, 1938'' presents one hundred superb photographs from his most ambitious FSA project, a survey of small-town life in the Depression. John Raeburn's accompanying text illuminates the thematic and formal significance of individual photographs and reveals how, taken together, they address key cultural and political issues of the years leading up to World War II. Shahn's photographs highlight conflicts between traditional values and the newer ones introduced by modernity as represented by the movies, chain stores, and the tantalizing allure of consumer goods, and they are particularly rich in observation about the changes brought about by Americans' universal reliance on the automobile. They also explore the small town's standing as the nation's symbol of democratic community and expose the discriminatory social and racial practices that subverted this ideal in 1930s America.; ''With clarity and grace, John Raeburn analyzes Shahn's lesser-known work as a photographer and adds an important dimension to our understanding of 1930s photography and culture.'' Miles Orvell, author of John Vachon's America: Photographs and Letters from the Depression to World War II ''Adroitly analyzing the complex visual dynamics in Ben Shahn's photography of small Ohio towns, Raeburn offers a useful and compelling reading of an important but neglected group of images.'' Cara Finnegan, author of Picturing Poverty: Print Culture and FSA Photographs; Google Preview content

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Ben Shahn's American Scene