Overview

In her memoir, Susan Garrett brings together scenes from her girlhood in Pennsylvania during World War II with the art and craft of photography. She describes living with her irascible, social-climbing grandmother while her mother pieced together a living taking pictures of the children of the wealthy inhabitants of the Main Line, an elite suburban enclave of Philadelphia. Her mother, Alice Benedict, was one of the few women photographers of her day - a student and protege of Alfred Steiglitz. Garrett sketches the science and history of photography, populating her narrative with legendary figures like Margaret Bourke-White, a bold contemporary of her mother and with whom Susan sensed her mother's veiled competitiveness; pioneers of photography like Daguerre, Fox Talbot, and Henri Cartier-Bresson; and writers like Susan Sontag, whose work ponders the ethical dimension of photographing tragic events.The volume features Alice Benedict's photographs as well as many by photographers such as Roger Fenton, W. Eugene Smith, and Ansel Adams.

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9780870745010

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An enthralling account of a remarkable woman, the art of photography she practiced, and her daughter's efforts to understand both. I've never read anything quite like it. An extraordinary book. - Louis B. Rubin, Jr.

Author Information

SUSAN GARRETT is the author of Taking Care of Our Own: A Year in the Life of a Small Hospital and Miles to Go: Aging in Rural Virginia. She grew up in Philadelphia and now lives with her husband, the writer George Garrett, in Charlottesville, Virginia.

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