Andy Grundberg - How Photography Became Contemporary Art: Inside an Artistic Revolution from Pop to the Digital Age

First, thanks to all the artists whose work I discuss; they have provided the material that shapes my narrative as well as a central reason my life has been so full and rewarding. Also, to the critics, writers, and editors of my generation who have endeavored to explain why art matters and which art matters more than most. I am blessed to have experienced firsthand such a disputatious and energetic era in the history of art, thanks to you.

This book includes my own recollections, which lack the fabled veracity of still photographs, so I have relied on my peers and on much recent scholarship to confirm as many of them as possible. Among the many individuals who supplied their own memories of the period to supplement mine, and who submitted to my interrogations in person, I am indebted to Janet Borden, Roger Bruce, Charles Hagen, Marvin Heiferman, Harold Jones, Jane Livingston, Lisa Spellman, Carol Squiers, Charles Stainback, Helene Winer, and Ealan Wingate. Deborah Bell, Philippe Garner, Michael Klein, Rosalind Krauss, Laurence Miller, and others also supplied key details when asked. Joan Simon supplied valuable feedback on some early drafts.

I have benefited over the years from the support of colleagues, editors, and friends far too numerous to mention, but here are a few: at Art in America, Elizabeth C. Baker and Joan Simon; at the Soho Weekly News, Gerald Marzorati; at the New York Times, Eva Hoffman, Michael Kimmelman, William McDonald, Marilyn Minden, Claiborne Ray, Constance Rosenblum, Le Anne Schreiber, Jack Schwartz, and Rebecca Sinkler; at the Washington Post, John Pancake. My faculty colleagues at the Corcoran College of Art and Design, especially Dorothea Dietrich, Frank DiPerna, Muriel Hasbun, and Susan Sterner, helped inspire me to develop and expand the course that was the basis for this book.

Julia Scully, former editor of Modern Photography, was my most important influence at the start of my career; she introduced me to a world of photography I might never have known and to writing about it with passion and compassion. Art historians Rosalind Krauss, Robert Rosenblum, and Irving Sandler I got to know but briefly in my years in New York, but their sagacity and openness to new art set a standard for art writing I deeply admire. In the photography world, in addition to those already mentioned, I am fortunate to have shared my formative years as a critic with gallerists of exquisite visual refinement, including Bonni Benrubi, Evelyne Daitz, Jeffrey Fraenkel, Peter MacGill, Marcuse Pfeifer, Julie Saul, Daniel Wolf, and Virginia