Seeing Salt Lake City: The Legacy of the Shipler Photographers

Rating:
Summary: A welcome contribution to American photographic history
Review: The Shipler family dominated photography in Utah for about 100 years. James Shipler left his Pittsburgh camera shop in 1889 to relocate in Salt Lake City and pioneered in photographer there. With his death in 1937, his son Harry succeeded him, with grandson Bill and great-grandson Hollis eventually taking their turn in the family business. About 100,000 Shipler glass-plate and film negatives survive in the archives of the Utah State Historical Society. Seeing Salt Lake City: The Legacy Of The Shipler Photographers comprises 175 of the best of these photographic legacy, reproduced as full-page images and historically showcasing Utah's capital city. From 1903 and a view of the Fremont School on Third West with a surrey parked outside awaiting its owner, to a 1940 photo of a row of Ford coupes outside the Crystal Palace Market on South Temple Street, each image is noted for its depth, clarity, and perspective, as well as the architecture evident with the growth and maturation of an American metropolis of the west. Seeing Salt Lake City is an impressive testament to one family's photographic artistry, and a welcome contribution to American photographic history.