Bestselling author Whitney Ottorsquo; s Eight Girls Taking Pictures i s a profoundly moving portrayal of the lives of women; imagining the thoughts and circumstances that produced eight famous female photographers of the twentieth century. This captivating novel opens in 1917 as Cymbeline Kelley surveys the charred remains of her photography studio; destroyed in a fire started by a woman hired to help take care of the house while Cymbeline pursued her photography career. This tensionmdash; between wanting and needing to be two places at once; between domestic duty and ambition; between public and private life; between whatrsquo;s seen and whatrsquo;s hidden from viewmdash;echoes in the stories of the other seven women in the book. Among them: Amadora Allesbury; who creates a world of color and whimsy in an attempt to recapture the joy lost to WWI; Clara Argento; who finds her voice working alongside socialist revolutionaries in Mexico; Lenny Van Pelt; a gorgeous model who feels more comfortable photographing the deserted towns of the French countryside after WWII than she does at a couture fashion shoot; and Miri Marx; who has traveled the world taking pictures; but also loves her quiet life as a wife and mother in her New York apartment. Crisscrossing the world and a century; Eight Girls Taking Pictures is an affecting meditation on the conflicts women face and the choices they make. These memorable characters seek extraordinary lives through their work; yet they also find meaning and reward in the ordinary tasks of motherhood; marriage; and domesticity. Most of all; this novel is a vivid portrait of women in lovemdash;in love with men; other women; children; their careers; beauty; and freedom. As she did in her bestselling novel How to Make an American Quilt; Whitney Otto offers a finely woven; textured inquiry into the intersecting lives of women. Eight Girls Taking Pictures is her most ambitious book: a bold; immersive; and unforgettable narrative that shows how the art; loves; and lives of the past influence our present.
#2416095 in eBooks 2009-06-30 2009-06-30File Name: B007CFDELS
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Scholarly. be patient and be rewardedBy Rc MorrisonScholarly and very thorough. Not a book for light reading but if you want to know about art. give it a try.13 of 16 people found the following review helpful. A ground-breaking bookBy April WilsonIn his conclusion to "Painting Outside the Lines." David Galenson writes:"this book has exposed a deep fault line in the history of modern art. by revealing the dramatic and systematic differences between experimental and conceptual approaches to artistic innovation that have separated seekers and finders over the course of time."Indeed. "Painting Outside the Lines" has done just that. Challenging the common assumption that all artists naturally produce more valuable paintings as they mature. Galenson has discovered that although some artists do conform to this expectation. others actually produce their most valuable paintings when they are younger. Experimental innovators.such as Cezanne and Motherwell. constantly revise their work.rarely feeling as if their work is ever fully completed. andhave their greatest success when they are older. No doubt they would agree with Nietzsches observation: "But it takes more courage to make an end than a new verse. All doctors and poets [and artists] know that." Conceptual artists. includingPicasso and Stella. on the other hand. make many drafts before they begin their paintings. and consider their paintingsfinished once their initial conception of them is complete. LeWitt. a conceptual painter. even went so far as to have his work executed by others.Galenson quantifies the value of artists paintings bytheir appearances in art exhibits and by their inclusionsin art books. This pragmatic approach is an innovativecontrast to the ways in which art historians evaluate art. Moreover. Galensons insight into the two radically different methods of artistic innovation could be applied to myriadother creative disciplines. including poetry and music.Galenson. himself an experimental economist. has ended his book on a dramatic note. I will be eager to see how he develops his own work further. now that his original theory is in place.
