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Title: American Politicians: Photographs from 1843 to 1993 by Susan Kismaric ISBN: 0-87070-157-6 Publisher: Museum of Modern Art Pub. Date: January, 1994 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.17

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)

Rating: 5
Summary: A Great Gift for Election Day!
Comment: "American Politicians" is a visual exploration of one of our country's defining insitutions. Curated as a traveling exhibition and accompanying book by Susan Kismaric of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, I had the good fortune to see this show first hand when it made a stop at Washington's Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Several of the seminal images of American Politics included in this book are surely tattooed to your mind's eye -- Truman playing piano with Lauren Bacall sensually sitting atop it; the classic "Dewey Defeats Truman" shot; the assasination of RFK; LBJ flicking-off someone as he boards an airplane, much to JFK's chagrin; and, "The Loneliest Job in the World," George Tames' famous image of Kennedy standing over his desk, head hung low, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. However, it's the lesser known works that are truly fascinating. The Brown Brothers photograph of Theodore Roosevelt, which graces this book's cover, at first glance seems like a perfectly choreographed moment, complete with a background-filling American flag and Teddy in one his signature, triumphant gestures. But look closely and you'll spy a pair of crutches in the picture's center. That's right, FDR wasn't the only Roosevelt who had difficulty walikng under his own power. It's hard to believe with today's media feeding frenzies that photographer's used to respect political leader's private lives and personal shortcomings; the fact is this image probably never ran in the newspaper.

These are the types of subtle images and contexts that are dealt with in "American Politicians." Robert Frank's "Convention Hall-Chicago" (that guy with the cigar and sun glasses really runs the country, doesn't he?), Lee Friedlander's abstract self-portraits in storefront windows (which happen to have portraits of the candidates in them), and Garry Winogrand's sweeping shots that show that he is interested as much in the crowd as the candidate. Some of the photographs are not subtle at all, but very funny because of their political awkwardness -- LBJ showing-off his gall bladder scar, Nixon looking at his watch while shaking hands with the crowd, and Dukakis driving the infamous tank.

The book concludes with some very revealing portraits, of Senators Byrd, Schroeder and Thurmond by Judith Joy Ross, that summarize this book perfectly. The Senators present themselves the way they want to be seen, and the way they've been taught and coached to do all their lives. Yet they are human and vulnerable, despite their power and prestige, just like all of us little people.