Capitol America : A Photographic Portrait of the Fifty State Capitols

Description

Photographic survey of the architecture, decoration, and setting of all 50 US state capitol buildings with descriptive text.

Master
photographers
Robert Lisak and David Ottenstein have created an unprecedented
photographic portrait of all 50 US state capitol buildings, exploring
architecture, interior spaces, furnishings, landscape settings, and
urban locations.

These portraits of America’s state capitol
buildings present shining examples of
various architectural styles, including:

Neoclassical
Renaissance
Art deco
Bauhaus
Gothic
Modernist

Their intention is not merely to record the
look of these secular civic temples, but to evoke their meaning and
spirit through the rich visual language of photography. Paintings and sculpture, wood and stone, landscaping: these all
contribute to the multilayered story of how we, as a people, value the
civic structures we erect.

The book further pays homage to these capitols with the following features:
Foreword by George Miles, curator of the Yale Collection
of Western Americana, that elaborates on the themes and ideas subtly revealed by the precise and thoughtful photographs.
The 50 state capitol buildingsare presented in
order of their admission to the Union, to provide a historical flow.

Each building has a written introduction by Robert Morton, a premier editor of photography books and works on the history or art and architecture, that provides a rich context for the images.
Captions accompany four to
six images of each structure.

The rich
photographs in this book bring the viewer into a shared contemplation of
the meaning and significance of these proud buildings.
By Robert Lisak and David Ottenstein, Foreword by George Miles, and Commentaries by Robert MortonRobert Lisak, based in New Haven, Connecticut, has an MFA in photography from the Yale School of Art. He has done a wide range of work for commercial, architectural, and nonprofit clients, in addition to pursuing long-term art projects such as documenting religious festivals and art and architecture in the Peruvian Andes. He lives in Hamden, CT.

David Ottenstein has worked for 35 years as an editorial and
commercial photographer, specializing in architecture. His photos are in
collections at Yale University’s Beinecke Library, the Nelson-Atkins
Museum of American Art, and other museums. His first book, Iowa: Echoes of a Vanishing Landscape, was published in 2017. He lives in New Haven, CT. 250 color and b&w imagesA Photographic Portrait of the Fifty State Capitols250 color and b&w images