Vicki Goldberg

La Strada captures the life and drama of Italy's streets from World War II through the 1970s. Its exquisite photographs, made by some of the most deeply skilled artists of the mid-twentieth century, are imbued with the essence of Neo-Realism, the aesthetic that produced some of the most influential Italian film and literature of the same era. The American gallerist and curator Keith de Lellis's selection of more than 200 pictures, some previously unpublished, by more than 60 masters--including Mario Giacomelli, Nino Migliori, and Mario De Biasi--reveals the touching, the humorous, and the tragic in the day-to-day lives of the Italian people, liberated from the grips of Fascism. A treasure trove, and a case for the continuing recognition of this inspired group of picture-makers.

Peter Granser, who lives in Stuttgart, Germany, commutes to the U.S. for work: his two previous books of photographs, Sun City (2003) and Alzheimers (2005) observe aging and illness among preternaturally prosperous and tan American retirees. Coney Island brings his gaze to an outpost of retro beach culture and economic decay that may be better known in Europe than at home. With precise, witty color, he captures the morbid charm of "America's Playground" on the Brooklyn beachfront, with its dilapidated amusement parks, made famous long ago in the black-and-white work of Diane Arbus, Weegee, and Bruce Gilden. Granser's more recent tours, for which he has already received the Leica Oskar-Barnack Award, found sweaty beach bums and sailors in drag, shabby snack bars and rusty roller coasters, and recorded them all with a sympathetic eye to the aura of splendor gone seedy. "Recruiting Station" shows the rundown Army recruiter's shack that stands in front of Nathan's Hot Dogs, home of the annual hot-dog eating contest. Nearby, he captures hipsters in knee socks and oversized sunglasses, and a view of the beach from an amusement-park ride high above it, with bathers small as dots.

Vicki Goldberg, one of the leading voices in the field of photography criticism, is well known for her cogent and perceptive writing, which is regularly featured in such national publications as The New York Times, American Photographer and Vanity Fair. Light Matters gathers for the first time a selection of this remarkable author's essays and criticism, culled from her writings published over the past 25 years. Goldberg's take on photography is both insightful and encompassing: her subjects range from pop imagery to war journalism, from photo-booth portraits to manipulated digital imagery, from the “boredom” of voyeurism to the great preponderance of tragic photographs in the news. She brings new light to the work of the medium's “old masters,” among them Walker Evans, Lotte Jacobi and Lartigue, writing with equal acuity about contemporary trailblazers such as Bill Viola, Daido Moriyama and Bastienne Schmidt. Goldberg also tackles provocative larger issues facing the medium, such as the potentially “transgressive” nature of photographs, and the camera's powerful role in a culture of commodification. Dismissing clichés and deftly negotiating the many diverging paths photography now follows, Goldberg demonstrates how to consider not just photographic images themselves, but their impact, and the meaning of that impact. Vicki Goldberg: Light Matters showcases a writer of great intelligence, wit and insight, whose understanding of this multifarious and evolving medium is unsurpassed.