Christmas in America: A Photographic Celebration of the Holiday Season

A pleasant enough selection of photos but pay attention to the title sub-line because probably half the photos relate to winter/holiday season rather than Christmas specifically. The pages are divided into three chapters: Christmas in the East (there are no page numbers but this chapter is eighty-four pages) Christmas in the Heartland (thirty-six pages) and Christmas in the West (forty-seven pages). I wonder editorially if it might have been better to put all the Christmas images together with the winter ones filling pages either side. The photos concentrate on the outdoors, either in the countryside or cities and strangely there are hardly any of folks enjoying a domestic Christmas Day around a decorated tree, opening presents, mealtimes or just enjoying the company of each other. This does seem a major omission. The book's fly leaf biog of Peter Guttman reveals his extensive photo assignments so maybe the contents are made up from a trawl through his archives. I think the outdoor shots work best with several stunning landscape photos especially in the West chapter. Mountains, trees, a frozen lake and plenty of snow seem sure fire ingredients for inspiring creativity. The city photos come across to me as average with several rather badly cropped. The book's printing and paper are excellent with the photos presented in a picture book layout rather than a formal photo book look. If this kind of subject matter interests you check out Christmas in America: Images of the Holiday Season by 100 of America's Leading Photographers a large size photo book published in 1988 (part of the Day in a Life series) that takes a closer look at the season than Peter Guttman's book. ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

This is such a beautiful photo collection of, as you may have guessed, Christmas in America. These are some of the most breath-taking, gorgeous photographs I have ever seen. I love looking through this book at the Holiday Season.

Peter Guttman's visionary photographs of the holiday season and his heartfelt captions in his new book, "Christmas in America," grabbed me with the power of a passionate virtuoso. The most difficult task an artist can face is to reconfigure and reintroduce the imagery of a well known topic such as Christmas in a way that we understand once again why this holiday is so special. By portraying people from sea to shining sea as they revel during the month of December, by candidly capturing the countless ways we celebrate our love, compassion and appreciation for each other as we come closer to the end of yet another year show what a sensitive and an insightful photographer Peter Guttman is. His words are equally compelling and illuminating. I'm a professor in English and teaching literature in college, but I have never read such a beautiful, eloquent and inspiring portrayal of Christmas and its history of celebration all through the ages, on different continents and in America. A true jewel, a must have Christmas ornament!