photography

  • Exploring the Library’s Photography Books

    Exploring the Library’s Photography Books

    I love reading photography books. Flipping through their pages brings a much-needed sense of creativity and inspiration, while also providing a window into history, community, and the world around us. Here are some that I have enjoyed recently: Pilgrimage Annie Leibovitz travels to locations that hold meaning for her, including Emily Dickinson’s house in Amherst,… Continue reading

  • Finding Moments of Calm with Photography Books

    Finding Moments of Calm with Photography Books

    Lately, I’ve been finding moments of calm by perusing the library’s many photography books. Flipping through pages of art and photos can bring a much needed pause from all of the screens around us. In honor of National Photography Month, here are some photography books that I’ve enjoyed:   Seeing Silence: The Beauty of the… Continue reading

  • Wintering Over: Art in Shades of Dark and Light

    Winter, like life, comes in shades of dark and light. Herein lies the drama of an indispensable duo meant to be seen, in multitudes of splendor, in paintings photographs and drawings. Let us go into the season with an Invocation of Beauty seeking not, its Genesis but Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico and Antonio Berni’s Juanito and… Continue reading

  • Arthur C. Pillsbury Photograph Collection

    Interested in seeing panoramic photos of Seattle and Alaska at the height of the Klondike Gold Rush? We recently digitized 197 photographs taken by Arthur C. Pillsbury between approximately 1896 and 1900, documenting the Gold Rush and scenes from California, Oregon and Washington. The collection includes a mixture of photograph sizes, many of them panoramic… Continue reading

  • Mary Ellen Mark: Eyeing Life

    Follow us throughout the fall for posts which highlight library resources and information that support the Tiny: Streetwise Revisited exhibit at the Central Library and its community programming. The undiffused difference between the placid suburb of her youth and the rough-edged city that surrounded it became quickly apparent. In she went with her lens widening as… Continue reading

  • Streetwise Revisited: Library Resources

    Follow us throughout the fall for posts which highlight library resources and information that supports the Tiny: Streetwise Revisited exhibit at the Central Library and its community programming. The Seattle Public Library is hosting the Streetwise Revisited: A 30-year Journey photography exhibit by Mary Ellen Mark exploring the lives of youth and families experiencing homelessness. It… Continue reading

  • The Story Behind a Modern Marvel: The Seattle Space Needle

      Fifty-five years ago this month, construction began on one of Seattle’ s most prominent icons – the Space Needle.  Our newest digital collection, the George Gulacsik Photograph Collection, documents the construction of the Needle from its start on April 17, 1961 to its completion in 1962 with the opening of the World’s Fair. Continue reading

  • Frank A. Kunishige and the Seattle Camera Club

    This month at the Central Library, we are opening an exciting new exhibit dedicated to Frank A. Kunishige, a noted Pictorialist photographer and one of the first members of the internationally recognized Seattle Camera Club. The exhibit features a selection of 33 textura tissue photographs, donated in 1961 by Kunishige’s wife, Gin. The prints represent the… Continue reading

  • The rescued photos of Allen and Sachtleben

    Join us in the Central Library Microsoft Auditorium on July 11th at 7 p.m. as we welcome bicycle historian, David V. Herlihy, author of The Lost Cyclist: The Epic Tale of An American Adventurer and His Mysterious Disappearance and Bicycle: The History. Herlihy will present a selection of historical photographs of early bicycle tourists, Thomas Allen… Continue reading

  • Judging a book by its author photo

    I was on a tight budget in 1989 when a book cover totally seduced me and weakened my fiscally conservative resolve. I’d already read most of the stories in Raymond Carver’s collection Where I’m Calling From when I saw the Vintage paperback at Elliott Bay Book Company. But that photo. I couldn’t walk away. That… Continue reading

  • Seattle Camera Club’s Vision of Beauty

    The beauty of our city, and its surroundings — how often have these been noted and commented on? Every fine day we get another opportunity to be grateful for Seattle’s location, and every rainy or cloudy day, the beauty is still present but cloaked in different covering. We’re lucky to be reminded of this simple… Continue reading

  • Sotero Photograph Collection

    The Seattle Public Library has a number of interesting visual collections. One example is the Sotero photograph collection, which offers a window into the world of African Americans in uniform during the World War II era. Marjorie Sotero collected these photographs during her time as a director of the African American Servicemen’s Clubs at Seattle’s… Continue reading

  • Discovering Oxford: Then and Now

    My small town roots drew me to a hefty arty book about the people in Oxford, Iowa, population 705.  But it was my love of a good story that kept me glued to The Oxford Project. In 1984, Peter Feldstein photographed 670 Oxford residents (the population then was 676) and displayed the 4×5 black and… Continue reading

  • Lost and Found

    One of the most attention-getting displays we have ever done at the Central library was an exhibit of things we’ve found in library books. You’d see even the most harried or preoccupied patrons stop to peer into the Plexiglas case with its odd assortment of scribbled notes, old Polaroids, postcards, ticket stubs and bookmarks ornate… Continue reading