J. S. Wooley: Adirondack Photographer
In 1880, Jesse Sumner Wooley, an energetic and entrepreneurial thirteen-year-old farm boy from Saratoga County, took a job as an errand boy for a pair of town photographers. This summer job led to a career that would define Wooley's life. From that early start, Wooley went on to become a prominent businessman and inventive photographer in Upstate New York.

This volume tells the fascinating story of Wooley's rise from his impoverished rural roots to a position of success and prosperity as an artist who illuminated twentieth-century bourgeois American culture through his photography. Including more than one hundred color and duotone photographs from his corpus, including a gallery of images from Matt Finley's private collection, the book reveals the range of Wooley's work: Adirondack panoramas, architectural studies, travel shows depicting the American west and Europe, and documentary photographs of contemporary events. Wooley's career is situated within the context of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century town photography, a field dominated by male commercial photographers who captured the day-to-day events of rural and town life. Like many of these professional photographers, Wooley embraced innovations in cameras, producing photo postcards and panoramic photography to satisfy the growing demand for images as souvenirs.

J. S. Wooley showcases the beauty of the Adirondack region as Wooley experienced it, the vital importance of town photographers, and the emergence of photography as a powerful medium to expose the American landscape.
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J. S. Wooley: Adirondack Photographer
In 1880, Jesse Sumner Wooley, an energetic and entrepreneurial thirteen-year-old farm boy from Saratoga County, took a job as an errand boy for a pair of town photographers. This summer job led to a career that would define Wooley's life. From that early start, Wooley went on to become a prominent businessman and inventive photographer in Upstate New York.

This volume tells the fascinating story of Wooley's rise from his impoverished rural roots to a position of success and prosperity as an artist who illuminated twentieth-century bourgeois American culture through his photography. Including more than one hundred color and duotone photographs from his corpus, including a gallery of images from Matt Finley's private collection, the book reveals the range of Wooley's work: Adirondack panoramas, architectural studies, travel shows depicting the American west and Europe, and documentary photographs of contemporary events. Wooley's career is situated within the context of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century town photography, a field dominated by male commercial photographers who captured the day-to-day events of rural and town life. Like many of these professional photographers, Wooley embraced innovations in cameras, producing photo postcards and panoramic photography to satisfy the growing demand for images as souvenirs.

J. S. Wooley showcases the beauty of the Adirondack region as Wooley experienced it, the vital importance of town photographers, and the emergence of photography as a powerful medium to expose the American landscape.
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Overview

In 1880, Jesse Sumner Wooley, an energetic and entrepreneurial thirteen-year-old farm boy from Saratoga County, took a job as an errand boy for a pair of town photographers. This summer job led to a career that would define Wooley's life. From that early start, Wooley went on to become a prominent businessman and inventive photographer in Upstate New York.

This volume tells the fascinating story of Wooley's rise from his impoverished rural roots to a position of success and prosperity as an artist who illuminated twentieth-century bourgeois American culture through his photography. Including more than one hundred color and duotone photographs from his corpus, including a gallery of images from Matt Finley's private collection, the book reveals the range of Wooley's work: Adirondack panoramas, architectural studies, travel shows depicting the American west and Europe, and documentary photographs of contemporary events. Wooley's career is situated within the context of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century town photography, a field dominated by male commercial photographers who captured the day-to-day events of rural and town life. Like many of these professional photographers, Wooley embraced innovations in cameras, producing photo postcards and panoramic photography to satisfy the growing demand for images as souvenirs.

J. S. Wooley showcases the beauty of the Adirondack region as Wooley experienced it, the vital importance of town photographers, and the emergence of photography as a powerful medium to expose the American landscape.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780815610960
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Publication date: 10/29/2018
Series: New York State Series
Pages: 176
Product dimensions: 11.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Richard Timberlake is owner and operator of Timberlake Photos in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Philip Terrie is professor emeritus of American culture studies and environmental studies at Bowling Green State University. He is the author of Contested Terrain: A New History of Nature and People in the Adirondacks.

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First book to capture the life and works of this prominent Adirondack village photographer at the turn of the twentieth century.

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