This well researched photo essay on Paul Outerbridge is a wonderful addition to the pictorial history of the art. Elaine Dines-Cox does a marvelous job placing Outerbridge in an artistic context. Outerbridge draws from Cubism, New Objectiviity and Surrealism and translates them into his own visual language. She speaks not only of his art but the processes he used. An entire chapter is extracted from an Outerbridge publication from 1940 describing the Carbo process.Dines-Cox book is beautifully oversized to bring to full advantage the magnificent work of this master. Outerbridge mastered both black and white and color during his lifetime. His life is briefly sketched but this book is not intended as a biography but rather as a homage to a great master.
Outbridge's name is not as well known as Adams, Weston, Cunningham, Brassai or Kertesz but as an artist he ranks with the best. Recent auctions of his work have fetched incredible sums.
While other great artists have innumerable books to their credit I have only come across two other publications on Outerbridge and they were both small paperbacks with inferior reproductions. With but one photograph per page this is one of the handsomest publications in years.
