The United States as Arcadia

books:


	• An American Journey: The Photography of William England Ian Jeffrey Prestel, 1999 - 104 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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The United States as Arcadia

Stereoviews were the TV of Victorian England and America. The form presented exotic locations and people as they were, without the sometimes floridly Romantic eye of the landscape painter. In the late 1850's, William England of the London Stereoptic Company became the first commercial photographer to take a series of stereoviews of the US for the European market. Ian Jeffrey has raided the George Eastman House collection to show us what England the photographer, and by extension, what England the country, saw. The America of this book is an arcadia, a world where Man's ingenuity is triumphing over the wilderness, over the rivers, even over Niagara Falls. New York bustles. The Capitol in Washington is being built. Ingenious bridges span the Niagara River. And none of it is to last. England (and Jeffrey) capture a poignant instant in the history of the US: the arcadian vision before the country descends into the horror of the Civil War. An American Journey: the Photography of William England is a beautiful (and beautifully produced) book that shows the reader this all-too-brief moment of American history.

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