Robin Schwartz: Amelia & the Animals - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 159711278X ISBN 13: 9781597112789

Publisher: Aperture, 2014

Synopsis

Amelia is 14 years old. In many ways, she is your average American teenager: since she was three years old, she has been her mother's muse, and the subject of her photographs. However, not every mom is a world-class photographer with a predilection for photographing animals. And it's not every teenager who has portraits of herself with elephants, llamas, ponies, tigers, kangaroos, chimpanzees and endless dogs, cats, and other animals--portraits that hang in the collections of major art museums around the world. "Amelia and the Animals" is Robin Schwartz's second monograph featuring this collaborative series dedicated to documenting her and Amelia's adventures among the animals. As Schwartz puts it, "Photography is a means for Amelia to meet animals. Until recently, she took these opportunities for granted. She didn't realize how unusual her encounters were until everyone started to tell her how lucky she was to meet so many animals." Nonetheless, these images are more than documents of Amelia and her rapport with animals; they offer a meditation on the nature of interspecies communication and serve as evidence of a shared mother-daughter journey into invented worlds.Robin Schwartz (born 1957) earned an MFA in photography from Pratt Institute, and her photographs are held in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art, in New York; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Brooklyn Museum; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; and Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany. She is an assistant professor of photography at William Paterson University and lives in New Jersey with her husband, Robert Forman, daughter, Amelia, and five companion animals.

About this title

Review:

On a lighter note, Amelia and the Animals is a delightful collection of photographs by American photographer Robin Schwartz. It depicts her daughter Amelia communing with a variety of species ranging from bald sphinx like cats to the more exotic tiger cub. There seems nothing unusual in seeing Amelia perched in an elephant's trunk or seemingly in conversation with a group of kangaroos. She is nature's child and seems relaxed with her animal companions. Schwartz photographs are otherworldly, artfully composed and Amelia's quiet, wistful expression and abundance of hair feel almost PreRaphaelite.--Cheryl Newman "Dirty Books "

If you buy only one thing this month, make it Robin Schwartz's new book, Amelia and the Animals. The images of her growing daughter with animals big and small is a powerful meditation on fantasy and reality in the natural world.--The Editors "Smallish Magazine "

When potrait photographer Robin Schwartz took her 3-year-old daughter to the circus, she never expected the toddler to fall in love. But once Amelia met a baby chimp named Ricky, "the two of them could not stop hugging," says Schwartz who captured the mutual affection with her camera. That encounter inspired Schwartz to continue photographing the ways her daughter now 15, bonds with animals. The pair have become creative partners, dreaming up whimsical sweet potraits with all kinds of furry friends: Amelia leading the way for six llamas, curling up among kangaroos, cuddling with a camel, sitting next to a wallaby at a kitchen table. The 12-year project is now a book, Amelia and the Animals. "We try to create a world where there is no line between humans and animals," says Schwartz.--Abigail Libers "O Magazine "

Both mother and daughter have always felt a strong connection with animals, and that's what Schwartz means to show in her new book, Amelia & the Animals, which will be released next month.--Gabrielle Plucknette "NYmag.com, Science of Us "

Robin Schwartz's images of animals have appeared in museum and galleries around the world, and her daughter Amelia has spent her lifetime among the animals her mother has photographed.--Phil Bicker "TIME Lightbox "

Rickard is following that work up with a new book called "N.A.," where he continues to mine the Internet for views of America that are anything but idyllic. This time, he snatches frame grabs from videos that were made on cell phones and uploaded to YouTube.

The book is not a photojournalistic document -- the lack of captions and context asks us to create our own narratives. The printed text in the book includes a poem created using comments from YouTube. And the low resolution of the frame grabs mostly protects the identities of the subjects and gives the visceral imagery an impressionistic gloss.--Rebecca Horne "CNN Living "

About the Author:

Robin Schwartz earned an MFA in photography from Pratt Institute, and her photographs are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art, both New York; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Brooklyn Museum; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; and Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany. She is an assistant professor of photography at William Paterson University and lives in New Jersey with her husband, Robert Forman, daughter, Amelia, and five companion animals.

About this edition

• Publisher: Aperture
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 159711278X
• ISBN 13: 9781597112789
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 136