Check out the Course Reserves.

120 Thematic Essays on Modern/Contemporary Art
(Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.)

The Oxford Companion to the Photograph

Oxford Art Online

Photograph Resource Center at Boston University

 

Photography: a Cultural History. Oversize: TR15 .M273 2011

50 photographers You Should Know. Oversize: TR139 .S74 2008.

 

Classic Essays on Photography. Oversize: TR185 .C56

The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography: Digital Imaging, Theory and Applications, History, and Science. ref. TR9 .F6 2007

Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography. ref. TR642 .E5 2006

A. Use Library Catalogs to find books

1. Tufts Libraries Catalog

2. WorldCat (beyond Tufts)

B. Searches & Results

(note the search pattern; modify to your own needs)

1. Individual Photographers (two types of searches):

(subject browse) "simpson lorna"

(keyword search) "lorna simpson"

More examples, Nadar, Félix; Atget, Eugène; Stieglitz, Alfred; Weston, Brett; Frank, Robert.

2. On a particular topic/issue:

On photography and memory:

photograph* and artistic and memor*

On technological innovations of modernist photography:

photo* and (technolog* or digital*) and modern*

Tip: photograph* searches for photograph, photography, etc.

3. Place your photographer/topic in the larger context of a school of photographic practice:

Pictorialism (Photography movement)

Portrait photography

Staged photography

Spirit photography

Straight photography (Photographic criticism)

4. Explore your topic in the larger context of the history of photography:

Photography history

Photography, Artistic.

Art and photography

5. Search for Primary Sources (with the keyword "sources"):

Photographers: a Sourcebook for Historical Research

Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: a Sourcebook of Artists' Writings

Documentary Sources in Contemporary Art

Note: current artists are likely to be viewed and heard on the Web.

6. Search for Exhibition Catalogues:

Photography, Artistic -- Exhibitions

These exhibition and museum catalogues are uniquely valuable sources, which may include:

*Fundamental data on each work of art;

*Official images of the artworks;

*Curatorial statements/essays;

*essays by art critics/historians;

*list of scholarly publications on the art;

*interviews with artists;

*and more.

Here is an example:

Philip Trager / Barbara L. Michaels ... [et al.].

The formal eye / John Wood -- Phil Trager: an appreciation / Andrew Szegedy-Maszak -- "Looking backward": a conversation with Philip Trager / Stephanie Wiles -- An affinity for architecture: Philip Trager's photographs of buildings / Barbara L. Michaels -- Creatures of nature / Norton Owen -- Working with Phil / Eiko Otake. [TR647 .T72 2006]

ARTstor

Artifact (Tufts University)

Image Quest (two million plus rights-cleared images)

The American Museum of Photography

Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division

La Société Française de Photographie

The Daguerrean Society

Daguerreotype collection at the Library of Congress

American Memory

Civil War photographs collection at the Library of Congress

FSA photographs in the Library of Congress

Writing the Art History paper (Dartmouth Writing Program)

Chicago Style Manual

RefWorks

A. Use the subject databases to find journal articles.

1 & 2. JSTOR and Project Muse
JSTOR is a favorite with its full texts in core journals of all disciplines. Project Muse does not include exactly the same JSTOR journals, but it has more recent and current articles on many topics.

3. Academic OneFile

(All subjects, including Photography; a convenient quick start; Here are some sample findings.)

4. ARTbibliographies Modern (most comprehensive; late 1960's - present)

More Art & Art History databases:

International Bibliography of Art (1998 - present)

 

Art Full Text  (1984 - present); Art Index Retrospective   (1929- 1982)

 

Add Other perspectives/focuses:

5. America: History and Life

6. Film & Television Literature Index

7. Communication & Mass Media Complete

8. History (non-U.S.)

9. Women's Studies

10. When use GoogleScholar, set your Library Links to access Tufts full texts.

B. Find More Articles like this "perfect" one

How:

Search, in Arts and Humanities Citation Index, for the article you have read.

For example:

Warburton, Nigel. "Individual Style in Photographic Art." British Journal of Aesthetics 36: 4 (1996), 389-397.
References: 13 Times Cited: 3

You can, then, look up, in the record, the 13 references that Warburton cited for his article and, in turn, 3 articles that cited his. The assumption is that these articles address related issues.

Note:

1. Not every single article is cited;
2. Influential authors are cited more often;
3. More recent publications take time to be cited.

C. Find "Literature Review"

Reviews of recent books and other types of review articles in major journals in a discipline are likely to summarize the current state of research in an area. Here are some examples:

A review of books

Godbey, Emily. "The Strange Case of William Mumler, Spirit Photographer (review)." American Studies 50: 1-2 (2009): 166 -167.

A review article

Nickel, Douglas R. "History of Photography: the State of Research" Art Bulletin (U.S.A.) 83.3 (2001): 548-58.

 

Recently Published Reviews (the College Art Association )

 

A Few Core Journals

The Art Bulletin.

Art History

Art Journal

 

History of Photography

Afterimage

European Photography

Bomb

Leonardo

October

Find an electronic-journal by title

Current:

LexisNexis Academic

Factiva (more international coverage)

 

Boston News (Boston Globe and Local Newspapers)

Historical

Boston Globe (1872-1979)

New York Times Online Archive
(1851 - 3 years before current date)

Times Digital Archive  (1785 - 1985)

Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890-1982)

American Periodicals (1740 - 1940)

British Humanities Index (1962- )
British Periodicals (1680s - 1930s)

1. Click on the button in your search results screen to a window of three sequential options:

a. link to the digital full text when available;

b. link to a Library Catalog search for the print journal;

c. link to ILliad for requesting the article when the above two options are negative.

2. Search for a journal directly here:

a. Tufts Library Catalog (including e-journals)

b. Electronic journals list

c. Use ILliad to request your article, if Tufts does not have your journal.

Set up for your ILliad account

Use ILLiad, our Interlibrary Loan Service, to request articles, books and other materials that are not available at Tufts.