Photography and the Art of Chance Photography and the Art of Chance Robin Kelsey The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, En gland 2015 Copyright © 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First printing Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Kelsey, Robin, 1961– Photography and the art of chance / Robin Kelsey. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-674-74400-4 (alk. paper) 1. Photography, Artistic— Philosophy. 2. Chance in art. I. Title. TR642.K445 2015 770— dc23 2014040717 For Cynthia Cone Contents Introduction 1 1 William Henry Fox Talbot and His Picture Machine 12 2 Defi ning Art against the Mechanical, c. 1860 40 3 Julia Margaret Cameron Transfi gures the Glitch 66 4 Th e Fog of Beauty, c. 1890 102 5 Alfred Stieglitz Moves with the City 149 6 Stalking Chance and Making News, c. 1930 180 7 Frederick Sommer Decomposes Our Nature 214 8 Pressing Photography into a Modernist Mold, c. 1970 249 9 John Baldessari Plays the Fool 284 Conclusion 311 Notes 325 Ac know ledg ments 385 Index 389
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