François Brunet

Robert Taft: Historian of Photography as a Mass Medium

This article outlines the treatment of photography as a mass medium of illustration in Robert Taft’s Photography and the American Scene, a “social history” of photography that appeared in 1938, the same year that saw the publication of Beaumont Newhall’s much better known “critical history.” The contrast and the dialogue between the two histories and their authors form a backdrop to the argument. Drawing from Taft’s text and his unpublished papers, the essay summarizes Taft’s survey of photography as a rich visual record of the American past and his investigation of the “historical value” of photographs, as opposed to their “artistic value.” Then, focusing on Taft’s chapter on the “pictorial press,” the essay links the author’s meticulous investigation of the history of photographic illustration to a pressing curiosity about the emerging mass media of the 1930s and their relevance to the perception of art and history.