In 1976 I received an Art Critics Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts -- the first ever awarded to a critic specializing in photography -- to support a study of the grotesque in photography. The original edition of The Grotesque in Photography was published in 1977 by Summit Books (a division of Simon & Schuster), in a print run of 15,000 copies (2,500 hardbound and 12,500 paperback). Its publishers insisted on a book that did not read as or have the appearance of a scholarly work -- hence the minimal footnoting and scant bibliography. It sold out within about four years, and has never been reprinted. Copies now retail for a substantial amount on the ÔNet and in rare-book dealers' catalogues.
This all happened before the now-standard practice took hold of linking such a survey project to a traveling exhibition, and in any case my publishers had a delivery date for the finished book that precluded setting up such a synergistic component to the overview, since that would depend on the advance scheduling capabilities of assorted museums and other venues. On my own initiative, I organized a small accompanying show that appeared at a gallery in New York City and at the University of Brudgeport, Connecticut. As a result of the latter exposure, a non-profit Connecticut exhibit-distribution enterprise took it on and made it available to educational institutions throughout that state for several years, but found no takers for it. Their final report to me indicated that all of their potential clients considered the images and/or their subject matter "too controversial."
I've pursued the possibility of producing a second edition with several publishers in the decades since, but as of this writing nothing has happened in that regard. No other survey of this form has appeared to date; so, though my introductory exploration of this theme now seems extremely dated, it nonetheless remains the standard reference on the subject. For those reasons, I'm posting the complete text here.
The original book itself contained over 200 duotone reproductions of work by over 50 picture-makers; pursuing rights to those, and scanning and posting them all, lies well beyond the resources of this CyberArchive. I hope at least to add a list of those illustrations, and their captions, to this online version at some future date.
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.
