Photography: MFA Highlights by Anne Havinga

This latest volume in the MFA Highlights series showcases over 100 stunning photographs from the museum's collection. An extensive introductory essay traces the aesthetic and technical history of photography as an art form, from the early days of the camera obscura through the invention of the daguerreotype and calotype and into the present digital age. In the selection of objects that compose the body of this beautifully designed volume, careful juxtapositions emphasize the graphic qualities of the photos, and extended captions compare and contrast images from different times and places, underscoring shared techniques, sensibilities or subjects. A wide range of photographers--from early experimenters such as Eugène Cuvelier, Charles Marville and Anna Atkins to modern giants Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, as well as contemporary practitioners such as James Nachtwey, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Loretta Lux--are represented by portraits and figure studies, city scenes and still lifes, landscapes and seascapes.