Unforgettable: Images That Have Changed Our Lives

By Peter Davenport

Book Overview

The Hindenberg disaster. Andy Warhol's Campbells Soup Can. Marilyn Monroe standing over the subway grating. The first step onto the Moon. These powerful images have left an indelible impression in our collective mind's eye. This mesmerizing little volume celebrates these and hundreds of other artistic and cultural touchstoneswithout actually reproducing them. Each page is devoted to a single image, with a caption providing its title or description and the date that it was created. Just that information evokes the image vividly. The page itself is blank. Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother. The album cover of Sgt. Pepper. A man facing a row of tanks in Tiananmen Square. Arranged in chronological order from 1900 to the present, these images are a testament to the enduring impact of photography, art, and the imageas well as to the graphic precision of our shared memory bank. It's also a great pop quiz on cultural literacy.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811839613
• ISBN13: 9780811839617
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.5" x 5.9"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Images of the Century

A stunning piece of invention. Davenport presents us with captions and no pictures, and yet it works as well as if the pictures appeared. So deeply are the images imprinted in our visual memories, the can be imagined instantly. The design is extremely user-friendly for such a radical concept; words as pictures.

Incredible Piece of Imaginary Work

Davenport used an incredible angle with this book. When I was first browsing an art store at The Ohio State University I picked up this book expecting to see pictures of various objects or events in modern society that played an important role. To my dismay, at first, there were no images whatsoever. However, once I looked at the first 15 pages (of text) that contained events, people, objects, etc... My mind ran wild with the images that were supposed to be triggered. This book is a beautiful piece to add to any respectable book collection. I give it my highest recommendation!!

How clever

This has been a hit wherever I have shown this book. High up on both my holiday and special occasion gift-giving. It makes you realize that you don't have to see an image that is thoroughly imprinted on your brain. You just need a brain. I loved it.