We offer here a comprehensive resource, titled A. D. Coleman: A Bibliography of His Writings on Photography, Art, and Related Subjects from 1968 to 1995. This compilation appeared in 2000, issued by the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson. It makes available the basic bibliographic information (title, publication, volume, issue, page numbers, etc.) on over 1350 essays, books, monograph and catalogue introductions, and other publications of mine during this 27-year period. It also includes letters to the editor of the periodicals covered that pertain to my writings therein, and published interviews with me during those years. Each of the 1453 entries is accompanied by a brief synopsis of the essay's content. The entire bibliography is extensively indexed, making information retrieval relatively simple. For my own Acknowledgements and Author's Foreword, in html format, click here.
The CCP and I have decided to make this research tool available in two primary forms. The first is a reasonably priced, traditional printed version, the third such volume in the Center's line of published bibliographies. You can order signed hardbound or paperback copies from the Photography Criticism CyberArchive Bookstore. You can also order copies from the Center at http://www.creativephotography.org.
As a service to the educational and scholarly community, we've also chosen to publish it in a second form: as a pair of Adobe Acrobat pdf files, posted at both the CCP's website and here at the Photography Criticism CyberArchive. We offer these as free downloads. The first file (Front Matter) contains all the printed version's accompanying texts -- essays by myself, project editor Nancy Solomon, and former CCP Director Terence Pitts. The second file contains all the bibliographic entries and the index.This gives you the complete bibliography in electronic form (minus a few illustrations), indexed and also searchable. If you don't already have it, you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader -- a free utility -- to open it.
Here are links to the pdf downloads at this website:
And here are links to the pdf downloads at the CCP website:
One or another of these should be operative anytime.
Here's a link to the Adobe Acrobat site for that free
Acrobat Reader utility.
The bibliographic entries plus index constitute a large file (a book's worth of material), so -- depending on your computer's memory, the type of internet connection you have, the maximum bps of your modem, the time of day and the flow of web traffic -- this can take some time, perhaps up to half an hour. Unless you have a fast machine with a 56K modem or DSL hookup, we therefore recommend starting this download during a lunch break or late at night; the file will be waiting on your desktop when you return.
The continuation and expansion of this bibliography has already begun; it's in steady production already, as an actual database in a FileMaker Pro format. We've logged over 400 new items already; eventually we'll post that here, updating it periodically until it's current (within a month or so, anyhow). We're close to having a system for that process streamlined.
I hope eventually to convert the 1968-95 entries to the same FMPro database format, for posting here. This would make a greater variety of sorts and searches possible than what pdf format facilitates. That conversion task requires a volunteer; so, if the project interests you, or you know someone who might find it right up his or her alley, please contact me at adcoleman@photocriticism.com. If you're in school, I'll gladly cooperate with you and your faculty in turning this into an internship or independent-study project. For more information on internships with me, click here.
As indicated above, the 1968-95 bibliography primarily annotates my own writings; unlike many bibliographies, with the few exceptions I noted (letters to the editor and interviews), it doesn't list or describe references to and comments on my work in the work of others, reviews of my books, and other items of interest to researchers. In the post-1995 continuation of the bibliography now underway, such entries already do exist. Furthermore, we've commenced logging into that database such items from the period 1968-95, with the intent of slowly playing catch-up, in the hope of eventually fleshing out the entire bibliography with all the components that researchers find helpful in such a compilation.
So internships, assistantships, and independent-study opportunities for work on that project will remain always available here, year-round. Some aspects of it require the person's presence in New York. Others -- such as searches of the literature to generate new entries -- can be performed on the individual's own schedule and wherever he or she is based, via telecommuting. So, if any of these interest you, or if you're a teacher with students looking for such opportunities, don't hesitate to contact me at adcoleman@photocriticism.com.
When we post the bibliography update here at the site, we'll include a handy form that anyone can use to submit an entry. Any substantial help in retrieving this information will earn its suppliers a mention in the credits for that update. But even the provision of information on a single reference helps. My thanks in advance to any and all who contribute to that project.
-- A. D. Coleman
This text is © Copyright 2003 by A. D. Coleman. All rights reserved. For reprint permissions contact Image/World Syndication Services, POB 040078, Staten Island, NY 10304-0002 USA;T/F (718) 447-3091,
imageworld@nearbycafe.com.
