RYAN, KATHY
For over 30 years, The New York Times Magazine has been synonymous with the myriad possibilities and applications of photography. The New York Times Magazine: Photographs reflects upon and interrogates the very nature of both photography and print magazines at this pivotal moment in their history and evolution. Edited by Kathy Ryan, longtime photo editor of the Magazine, and with a preface by former editorial director Gerald Marzorati, this volume presents some of the finest commissioned photographs worldwide in four sections: reportage, portraiture, style and conceptual photography, including photo illustration. Diverse in content and sensibility, and consistent in virtuosity, the photographs are accompanied by reproduced tear sheets to allow for the examination of sequencing and the interplay between text and image, simultaneously presenting the work while illuminating its distillation to magazine form. This process is explored further through texts offering behind-the-scenes perspective and anecdotes by the many photographers, writers, editors and other collaborators whose voices have been a part of the magazine over the years. Issues of documentary photography are addressed in relation to more conceptual photography; the efficacy of storytelling; and what makes an image evidentiary, objective, subjective, truthful or a tool for advocacy; as well as thoughts on whether these matters are currently moot, or more critical than ever. As such, The New York Times Magazine: Photographs serves as a springboard for a rigorous, necessary and revitalized examination of photography as presented within a modern journalistic context.
