How Photography Became Contemporary ArtHow Photography Became Contemporary Art

When Andy Grundberg landed in New York in the early 1970s as a writer, photography was at the margins of the contemporary art world. By 1991, when he left his post as critic for the New York Times, photography was at the center of artistic debate. Grundberg writes about photography's "boom years," chronicling the medium's increasing role within the most important art movements of the time, from Earth Art and Conceptual Art to performance and video. He also traces photography's embrace by museums and galleries, as well as its politicization in the culture wars of the 80s and 90s. Grundberg reflects on the exhibitions that defined the moment and his encounters with the work of photographers--many of whom he knew personally--including Gordon Matta-Clark, Cindy Sherman, and Robert Mapplethorpe. He navigates themes such as photography's relationship to theory as well as feminism and artists of color. Part memoir and part history, this perspective ultimately tells a larger story about the decades of the 70s and 80s through the medium of photography.