"A wonderful, delicate, genteel, precise book. Susan Garrett writes 
with clarity and grace."—Lee Gutkind

In her memoir, Susan Garrett brings together scenes from her girlhood 
in Pennsylvania during World War II with the art and craft of 
photography. She describes living with her irascible, social-climbing 
grandmother while her mother pieced together a living taking pictures 
of the children of the wealthy inhabitants of the Main Line, an elite 
suburban enclave of Philadelphia. Her mother, Alice Benedict, was 
one of the few women photographers of her day—a student and 
protégé of Alfred Steiglitz. Garrett sketches the science and history of 
photography, populating her narrative with legendary figures like 
Margaret Bourke-White, a bold contemporary of her mother and with 
whom Susan sensed her mother's veiled competitiveness; pioneers of 
photography like Daguerre, Fox Talbot, and Henri Cartier-Bresson; 
and writers like Susan Sontag, whose work ponders the ethical 
dimension of photographing tragic events.

The volume features Alice Benedict's photographs as well as many 
by photographers such as Roger Fenton, 8232 W. Eugene Smith, and 
Ansel Adams.

"An enthralling account of a remarkable woman, the art of 
photography she practiced, and her daughter's efforts to understand 
both. I've never read anything quite like it. An extraordinary book."—
Louis B. Rubin, Jr.

_________________________________________________________

SUSAN GARRETT is the author of Taking Care of Our Own: A Year in 
the Life of a Small Hospital and Miles to Go: Aging in Rural Virginia.
She grew up in Philadelphia and now lives with her husband, the writer 
George Garrett, in Charlottesville, Virginia.



What people are saying about this book

“A lovely book. The prose is delicate and sure-footed, the insights 
startling, and the indirect, sly manner of the narrator serves to 
complicate our judgments. The alternating of focus between a 
personal memoir and a meditation on the history of photography is 
unusual; the two parts reinforce each other. It is original, beautifully 
written, humorous, cultivated, and moving.”—Phillip Lopate