Szarkowski, John. Mirrors and Windows. American Photography Since 1960 by John Szarkowski.

Museum of Modern Art, 1978. 1st edition (unstated) in wraps.  [Issued in conjunction with an exhibition that divided photographers into two broad categories: those that look out to photograph the world for what it is and those who use photography to express their own personalities. Includes Paul Caponigro, Roy DeCarava, Robert Doisneau, Elliott Erwitt, Lee Friedlander, Danny Lyon, Garry Winogrand, Diane Arbus; Robert Adams; Lewis Baltz; Richard Benson; Walter Chappell; Mark Cohen; Linda Connor; Marie Cosindas; Robert Cumming; Judy Dater; Bruce Davidson; William Eggleston; Ralph Gibson; Frank Goehlke; Emmett Gowin; Jan Groover; Ernst Haas; Chauncey Hare; Robert Heinecken; Simpson Kalisher; George Krause; Les Krims; Robert Mapplethorpe; Roger Mertin; Ray Metzker; Duane Michals; Richard Misrach; Nicholas Nixon; Bill Owens; Tod Papageorge; Sylvia Plachy; Eliot Porter; Doug Prince; Edward Ranney; Robert Rauschenberg; Leland Rice; Ed Ruscha; Lucas Samaras; Naomi Savage; Stephen Shore; Art Sinsabaugh; Rosalind Solomon; Eve Sonneman; George A. Tice; Jerry Uelsmann; Max Waldman; Todd Walker; Andy Warhol; Henry Wessell, Jr.; Geoff Winningham; Bill Zulpo-Dane, et al.] Summary:

Mirrors and Windows: American Photography Since 1960 (1978) is a highly influential 152-page exhibition catalog written by John Szarkowski, the legendary Director of the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The publication serves as a definitive critical thesis, organizing the chaotic explosion of American photography during the culturally turbulent 1960s and 1970s into a clean, binary conceptual framework.

Key Content and Themes

• The Binary Thesis: Szarkowski famously divides the evolution of post-1960 American photography into two distinct, diverging philosophical camps:

  • Mirrors (The Romantic/Subjective Tradition): Photography practiced as a means of self-expression. In this view, the artist treats the camera as a mirror to project their personal interior world, emotions, and sensibilities onto the subject matter. Artists in this camp include Minor White, Jerry N. Uelsmann, and Robert Heinecken.

  • Windows (The Realist/Objective Tradition): Photography practiced as a method of exploration. In this view, the artist treats the camera as a window through which to look out at the exterior world, seeking to better understand reality, society, and the nature of the environment. Artists in this camp include Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander, and Robert Adams.

• The Death of Photojournalism: Szarkowski charts a structural shift in the medium's economy. He argues that the decline of massive picture magazines like Life and Look in the 1960s freed photographers from the constraints of editorial narratives, driving them toward the university, the gallery, and highly individualized artistic pursuits.

• Formal Diversity: The catalog contains 127 plates—both in black-and-white and early masterworks of art-world color—representing a "who's who" of the era. It traces how the documentary tradition of the 1950s evolved into the complex, often ironic visual vocabulary of the "New Documents" and "New Topographics" movements.

Significance

Mirrors and Windows stands as one of the most important pieces of photographic criticism from the late twentieth century. While some contemporary critics argued that Szarkowski's neat binary division oversimplified the overlapping, messy motivations of individual artists, his framework provided an indispensable vocabulary that helped museums, collectors, and the general public navigate and legitimize photography's transition into mainstream contemporary art.

Copies available:

• Very good with minor indentations and sunning along top edge of cover.
• No sunning but with a vertical crimp on cover and first page, near very good. 
• Very good with shadow of a small adhesive label on cover (see photo) and evidence of previous college department ownership inside front cover.