The Contact Sheet

Photography editor Crist (Zoe Strauss's America) presents images from 44 photographers along with the original, rarely-seen contact sheets from which they originated. Crist makes an engaging case for the contact sheet, an initial print made from newly-developed negatives, usually a series of six to twelve shots, as ""a window into the thought process of a photographer... a photographer's sketchbook."" Photographers covered include William Claxton, Imogen Cunningham, Art Kane, Jerry McMillan, Melissa Ann Pinney, Edmund Teske, Hellen Van Meene, and William Wegman; subjects include everything from a Siberian prison camp to the Iraq warfront, Aretha Franklin to President Nixon, underwater seascapes to city architecture. Crist includes an introduction to each photographer; the story behind each famous image, with quotes from the artist; and, where appropriate, film processing details. Each photograph in question is stunningly reproduced with a full- or two-page treatment, though the contact sheets themselves can feel hedged in by a single page; occasional two-page contact sheet spreads provide much more satisfying detail (as in Robert Doisneau's images of Paris, each an icon-in-waiting). Although it will be of greatest utility to professional and amateur photographers, this rare, beautifully-crafted look into the photographic process should attract a broad range of visual art fans.