An American Odyssey: Photos from the Detroit Photographic Company 1888-1924 - Hardcover

Marc Walter; Sabine Arque

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3836542102 ISBN 13: 9783836542104

Publisher: TASCHEN Gmbh, 2014

Synopsis

A glimpse into an epic beyond: Majestic color photochroms of American life and landscapes around the turn of the 20th century From the Atlantic to the Pacific, the Rockies to the Tropic of Cancer, the North American landscape is as diverse as it is immense. Lakes as great as seas, forests towering to the sky, windswept plains, sweltering deserts, tumbling waterfalls, marshy swamps, rushing rivers, a legendary canyon... the list of the continent's natural features inspires both wonder and awe. This collection of photochroms and Phostint postcards from the private collection of Marc Walter was produced in color by the Detroit Photographic Company between 1888 and 1924. It shows North America's vast and varied landscape in all its splendor, as well as its peoples, from Native Americans and African Americans to immigrants and the last cowboys or gold rushers. Legendary locales such as Far West saloons, New York's and San Francisco's Chinatowns, Coney Island, and Atlantic City complete the panorama of a century ago. Using a photolithographic process that predated the autochrome by nearly 20 years, these images offered people their first glimpses of color photographs. Imbued with a sense of discovery and adventure, they offer an extraordinary voyage through the America of the past."

About this title

Review:

"I found many of the images truly beautiful, often awe-inspiring... Hours can pass simply reading store signs, or poring over faces among the masses on tenement-lined streets... An American Odyssey is a celebration of the North American continent made exceptional by its scope."

"At 15.7 pounds and 600 pages, this is the heftiest and most pored-over book on our coffee table... the nationwide swath of scenery is breathtaking, shot when the West was Wild and the times were woolly."

"An American Odyssey provides a strikingly vibrant look at America, from the late 1880s to the early 1920s... The images are at-once beautiful and technically brilliant documents that reanimate history in a way few other media possibly can."

"From the buzz of New York City to the expansive canyons of Arizona, the collection provides a fascinating glimpse into America's past, in all its vibrancy."

"...almost as epic as its source material, with more than 600 pages packed with beautiful shots from the US's formative period."

"...an extraordinary voyage through the past - you will never see the United States in the same way again."

About the Author:

The editor and author: Graphic designer, photographer, and collector Marc Walter specializes in antique travel photographs, particularly photochroms, of which he has one of the world's largest collections. He has widely published books with images from his collection as well as his own photographs. The contributing author: Sabine Arque is a documentarian, iconographer, and author. She has collaborated on numerous books on the subjects of historical architecture and travel.

About this edition

• Publisher: TASCHEN Gmbh
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 3836542102
• ISBN 13: 9783836542104
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 612