Critical Focus: Photography in the International Image Community

Rating:
Summary: From a review by Stephen Perloff, The Photo Review
Review: "A. D. Coleman . . . has long been one of our most intelligent commentators on photography. And for clear, unencumbered, jargon-free writing that assumes the intelligence of the audience, he has no equal.. Critical Focus . . . illustrates the rich understanding that Coleman has brought to the medium. . . . His short pieces burst with energy, like an Andrei Codrescu commentary, and they are equally mordant, funny, and insightful. His longer works brim with ideas and clear explication. . . . [R]equired reading for anyone who values understanding photography in contemporary culture."

-- Stephen Perloff, The Photo Review, Summer 1995

Rating:
Summary: From a review by Margarett Loke, ARTnews
Review: "At his best, photography critic A. D. Coleman is everything one would want. He draws not only from a wealth of knowledge about how photography is made and who makes it but also from his own extensive readings in subjects beyond photo graphy. He is a lucid thinker and an elegant writer.

"All this is evident in Coleman's new book of essays, Critical Focus. In the pieces, which first appeared in the San Francisco-based magazine Photo Metro, Coleman ruminates on the big issues and big names in photography of the last five years. In praise, Coleman's prose is transcendent; in reproof, he does not mince words. . . . One hopes that in future volumes there will be more of Coleman's dry, laconic prose. "

-- Margarett Loke, ARTnews, April 1996

Rating:
Summary: From a review in Petersen's Photographic
Review: " The book was recently awarded the I.C.P. Infinity Award for Writing on Photography -- and rightly so. Coleman beautifully uses his sly wit and social commentary to give us perspective on the artists and their work."

-- Petersen's Photographic, August 1996

Rating:
Summary: From a review by Stephen Perloff, The Photo Review
Review: "A. D. Coleman . . . has long been one of our most intelligent commentators on photography. And for clear, unencumbered, jargon-free writing that assumes the intelligence of the audience, he has no equal.. Critical Focus . . . illustrates the rich understanding that Coleman has brought to the medium. . . . His short pieces burst with energy, like an Andrei Codrescu commentary, and they are equally mordant, funny, and insightful. His longer works brim with ideas and clear explication. . . . [R]equired reading for anyone who values understanding photography in contemporary culture."

-- Stephen Perloff, The Photo Review, Summer 1995

Rating:
Summary: From a review by Margarett Loke, ARTnews
Review: "At his best, photography critic A. D. Coleman is everything one would want. He draws not only from a wealth of knowledge about how photography is made and who makes it but also from his own extensive readings in subjects beyond photo graphy. He is a lucid thinker and an elegant writer.

"All this is evident in Coleman's new book of essays, Critical Focus. In the pieces, which first appeared in the San Francisco-based magazine Photo Metro, Coleman ruminates on the big issues and big names in photography of the last five years. In praise, Coleman's prose is transcendent; in reproof, he does not mince words. . . . One hopes that in future volumes there will be more of Coleman's dry, laconic prose. "

-- Margarett Loke, ARTnews, April 1996

Rating:
Summary: From a review in Library Journal
Review: "Coleman is a rigorous critic with a deep, insightful knowledge of the method, theory, and history of photography. Unlike much contemporary criticism that often lapses into dense ideological analysis that is inaccessible to the uninitiated, Coleman's text delights with lucid, well-reasoned analyses of a variety of imagery. . . . Recommended for all collections."

-- Library Journal, September 1995

Rating:
Summary: Buy It! Read It! Love It!
Review: If you love photography or are a serious photgrapher - this book is a must. A very insightful book on photography. Coleman is at his best. You don't have to agree with him on every point, but he entices you to condsider the other side.

Rating:
Summary: This book contains the best of my reviews from 1988-93.
Review: This book contains the best of my reviews and reportage on the international photo and scene from 1988-93. The material was selected from a series of "Letters" published in the San Francisco journal Photo Metro; many of the reviews first appeared in my column in the New York Observer.

This book won the International Center of Photography's 1996 Infinity Award for Writing on Photography, and Honourable Mention in the Kraszna-Krausz Awards (U.K.)

Excerpts from the reviews, and more of my material, can be found in my newsletter, "C: The Speed of Light," at The Nearby Cafe, readers can reach me via the e-mail address there.