Erin. C. Garcia’s new book Photography as Fiction culls some of the most vivid imagery from the archives of LA’s J. Paul Getty Museum.
Garcia, assistant curator in the Department of Photographs at the Getty, has gone to great lengths to select some of the most robust and telling photographs in the museum’s collection. The results, which include offerings from Man Ray, Joel Peter Witkin, Thomas Eakins, and Alfred Stieglitz, run the gamut of the form’s more breathtaking representation of story.
The majority of the photographers featured rely upon a heady combination of real life and imagination to visualize the stories they tell. And whether it’s through John Plumbe Jr.’s 1842 Portrait of a Man Reading a Newspaper (plate 1 in the collection) or Loretta Lux’s 2005 Sasha and Ruby (plate 76), the narrative thrust of Photography as Fiction is a consistently bold one.
Visit the Getty’s official website, check out its venue page on Flavorpill LA, and buy a copy of the book
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Click through below for a gallery of images from the book.
Julia Margaret Cameron, Venus Chiding Cupid and Removing His Wings, 1872. Albumen silver print, 32.4 x 27.3 cm (12 3/4 x 10 3/4 in.). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 84.XM.443.4, From Photography as Fiction, Getty Publications.
Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), Saint George and the Dragon, June 26, 1875. Albumen silver print, 12.2 x 16.2 cm (4 13/16 x 6 3/8 in.). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 84.XP.458.15, From Photography as Fiction, Getty Publications.
Henry Peach Robinson, When the Day’s Work Is Done, 1877. Albumen silver print, 56 x 74.5 cm (22 1/16 x 29 5/16 in.). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 84.XM.898, From Photography as Fiction, Getty Publications.
Guido Rey, The Letter, 1908. Platinum print, 22.2 x 14 cm (8 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 85.XP.314.7, From Photography as Fiction, Getty Publications.
Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitsky), Rrose Sélavy (Marcel Duchamp), 1923. Gelatin silver print, 22.1 x 17.6 cm (8 11/16 x 6 15/16 in.). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 84.XM.1000.80. © Man Ray Trust ARS-ADAGP, From Photography as Fiction, Getty Publications.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Untitled (Michael and Christopher Meatyard), 1966. Gelatin silver print, 16.8 x 17.5 cm (6 5/8 x 6 7/8 in.). Gift of Christopher Meatyard and Jonathan Greene, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2007.49.4. © Estate of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, From Photography as Fiction, Getty Publications.
Lucas Samaras, Photo-Transformation, 1976. Polaroid print, 7.6 x 7.6 cm (3 x 3 in.). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 99.XM.53. © Lucas Samaras, From Photography as Fiction, Getty Publications
Eileen Cowin, Untitled, 1980–83. Chromogenic print, 48.3 x 60.3 cm (19 x 23 3/4 in.). Purchased with funds provided by the Photographs Council of the J. Paul Getty Museum, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2008.35.1. © Eileen Cowin, From Photography as Fiction, Getty Publications.
Philippe Halsman, Dali Atomicus, 1948. Gelatin silver print, 27.9 x 35.4 cm (11 x 13 15/16 in.). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 84.XP.727.12, From Photography as Fiction, Getty Publications.
Jo Ann Callis, Performance, 1985. Dye destruction print, 101.6 x 76.2 cm (40 x 30 in.). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2004.86.6, From Photography as Fiction, Getty Publications.