The family album is the record of our own history, the visible evidence of occasions and outings, major events and small intimacies. This work looks at the professional eye turned inward, capturing the images of those closest to the photographer. Edited by Spencer-Wood (Gandhi), the collection features varied techniques and styles that are as much a reflection of changing attitudes as of new technology. Photographers like Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, and Lee Friedlander offer visions different from those we have learned to identify with their oeuvre. Some photos are disturbing, but many are touching and immediate, with a personal resonance that evokes a sense of kinship between the viewer using the lens and the reader turning the pages. The lack of a formal order may be troubling, group sequences are interspersed with single images, and a photographer's work may be in a number of places. An interesting book, but not an essential purchase for most libraries, although it should be included in collections treating photographs and photographers.-Paula Frosch. Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., NY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
