'THE PROCESS AND THE PAGE' Exhibition on View thru 8/17 at Phoenix Art Museum

The latest photography exhibition at Phoenix Art Museum walks visitors through the five-step process involved in the creation of a photographic book. On display are fifteen books published from 1930 to 2013 by nine celebrated photographic artists including Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Richard Avedon, and W. Eugene Smith. As a vocal proponent of the photographic book, American photographer Ansel Adams helped pave the way for photographers to embrace the book as a medium to organize, disseminate, and promote their work. Presented alongside the books themselves are archive objects- including proposals, correspondence, drafts, expense reports, and marketing plans- to help illustrate the artists' role in every aspect of a book from design to production.

The Process and the Page: Developing Photographic Books is on view now through August 17, 2014, at Phoenix Art Museum. The exhibition expresses how photographers see these books as an essential component of their life's work. Archive objects like letters Adams sent to colleagues and publishers, book maquettes American photographer and filmmaker Paul Strand crafted, and a promotional flyer American printmaker, photographer, and graphic designer Robert Heinecken created are on view with their photographic books to demonstrate the thoughtful decisions each artist made throughout the publishing process from sequence and typestyle to reproduction quality and marketing.

"In the world of photography the book is a key part of an artist's career," explains Rebecca Senf, PhD., Phoenix Art Museum's curator of photography through its partnership with the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona. Senf added, "This show demonstrates the central role of book making in a wide range of subjects, styles, and time periods." Visitors will also be able to view fine prints related to the materials and books to allow the comparison of photographic art produced for the wall versus the book. There is even a rare hands-on aspect of this exhibition where the public will be allowed to flip through ten of the fifteen books to take an up-close look at the finished products.

For more information about the The Process and the Page: Developing Photographic Books exhibition, visit phxart.org/exhibition/processandpage.

About Phoenix Art Museum: Phoenix Art Museum has provided access to visual arts and educational programs in Arizona for more than 50 years and is the largest art museum in the Southwestern United States. Critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions are shown alongside the Museum's collection of more than 17,000 works of American, Asian, European, Latin American, Western American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion design. Visitors also enjoy vibrant photography exhibitions through the Museum's landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit PhxArt.org, or call the 24-hour recorded information line at (602) 257-1222.