Harmony of Reflected Light: The Photographs of Arthur Wesley Dow

Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922) is celebrated in American art history for his Japanese-influenced woodblock prints and paintings, his work promoting the Arts and Crafts movement, and his innovative theories in art education. Here James Enyeart, a scholar of Southwestern photography, explores Dow's lesser known yet significant contribution to modernist photography—only recently recognized after his descendants released a large body of his photographic work—and Dow's role as both a precursor to Stieglitz and the Photo-Secession and as an exponent of the modernist ideas coming from Stieglitz's 291 gallery. Among the 131 plates in this monograph are cyanotype, platinum, bichromate, and silver prints of subjects ranging from the banks of the Ipswich River to the Grand Canyon, from a traditional Chinese village in California to Hindu temples in India.