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...Or are you a stranger without even a name, This is a part of a verse from the anti-war song The Green Fields of France by Eric Bogle and neatly illustrates the theme of this book, Anonymous. Since the widespread use of the camera, most of us have recorded our lives with photographs and they supplement our memories and illustrate our tales from the past. From time to time, though, we all come across photographs that have been abandoned, perhaps when we move house we find them left behind or see them in a box of miscellaneous objects in an auction. Anybody with imagination can't help wondering what happened to the people who once treasured them and brought them out to show other people. Robert Flynn Johnson is the Curator in Charge of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts in the Fine Arts Museums of Chicago. In this book he has collected 200 photographs of unknown origin which he considers are arresting images. He says, "If a photograph is great, whatever its origin or authorship or lack thereof, it is great. In Western culture we depend too much on the cult of the personality in the creation of art." The book contains some fascinating pictures. There is one of the partly constructed Eiffel Tower only two stories high - far more interesting now than one of the fully built Tower. There are signs, one reads "Warning City Limits, Speed 100 miles. Fords do your damdest" while another read "Go slow and see our town. Go fast and see our jail!" Another picture shows a man in a small cart pulled by a team of pigs - we wonder, did they really manage to pull a cart? There is a chapter of erotic images, some possibly verging on the pornographic but the anonymity and context in this book removes any possible offence. Somehow we see them here in a different way that makes us wonder about the people in them rather than be affected, either positively or negatively, by the intended sexuality. Many of the pictures are beautiful and most have an air of mystery. Unlike the majority of our own personal photograph albums, these will continue to fascinate and intrigue people who see them making this a book that you can return to over and over again. Quick Facts Title: Anonymous:
Enigmatic Images from Unknown Photographers By: Robert Flynn Johnson Publisher: Thames & Hudson ISBN: 0500285764 Binding: Softback Pages: 208 Publication Date: October 2005 Price: £14.95 All information relates to the UK edition.
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