The Changing Face of Portrait Photography

Book excerpt: A richly illustrated volume examines the portrait work of Dorthea lange, Richard Avedon, Robert Weingarten, George K. Warren, Julia Margaret Cameron, the Barr & Wright Studio, Gertrude Käseebier, Nickolas Muray, Henry Horenstein, and Lauren Greenfiled. The Changing Face of Portrait Photography explores the power of the portrait and the role it plays in our personal and national identities. The Changing Face of Portrait Photography explores ten groups of portraits selected from within the Smithsonian National Museum of American History's Photographic History Collection. The selections represent work by specific photographers with diverse relationships to portraiture, and through their sampling take a focused look at changing convention, theory, and technologies.