Book Description

Born in Poland, Rose Mandel emigrated to California in 1942. A love of photography soon brought her into contact with Edward Weston and then with Ansel Adams and Minor White, both of whom had a strong influence on Mandel's work. Including her important sequence The Errand of the Eye, this book presents the sensitivity and clarity of Mandel' vision. Images from natural and man-made environments, eloquent portraits and abstract landscapes convey Mandel's delight in the compositions and patterns that can be found anywhere, whether walking along a city street or a country path. These photographs are the result of a highly refined sense of craftsmanship and a complex understanding of psychology and abstract expressionism that caused Mandel to be described as "a painter with a camera." The first monograph on the artist, this volume features an enlightening overview of Mandel's life and work, along with an illustrated chronology and exhibition history. AUTHOR: Susan Ehrens is an art historian and independent photography curator and consultant who worked closely with Rose Mandel during the last two decades of the artist's life. Julian Cox is the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco's Founding Curator of Photography and Chief Administrative Curator. SELLING POINTS: The first publication dedicated to Rose Mandel, a pioneering woman in photography, introduces her remarkable, if often overlooked, body of work to a wider audience. IMAGES: 105 duotone photographs