The Thrill of the Chase: The Wagstaff Collection of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum

About this book

Samuel J. Wagstaff Jr. (19211987) amassed an extraordinary collection of 26 000 photographs between 1973 and 1984 recognizing that photography was an undervalued art form on which he might have a profound impact as a collector. He was mainly attracted to photographs that stimulated his imagination and his taste ran toward the idiosyncraticimages that surprised him chiefly because he had never seen them before. In choosing the 147 works reproduced in this volume Paul Martineau selected masterpieces as well as images from obscure sources: daguerreotypes cartes-de-visite and stereographs plus mug shots medical photographs and works by unknown makers. The latter category contains some of the most outstanding objects in the collection demonstrating Wagstaffs willingness to position unfamiliar images alongside works by established masters as well as underrepresented contemporary artists of the time including Jo Ann Callis William Garnett and Edmund Teske. This book is published to accompany an eponymous exhibition on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from March 15 to July 31 2016; at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford CT from September 10 to December 11 2016; and at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland ME from February 1 to April 30 2017.