An Enduring Vision

Among private collections of fine photography, the Lane Collection stands out as one of the most remarkable. Begun in the 1960s and still ongoing, it shines not only for its wealth of top-quality prints by the great modernist triumvirate of Edward Weston, Charles Sheeler, and Ansel Adams, but also for its breadth, from the historically significant to the cutting edge. Karen Haas presents the history of the Lane Collection, the passion and vision of William and Saundra Lane, and in-depth discussions of each individual work, and Lyle Rexer trains an acute eye on images from the collection, taking them as springboards for both historical and aesthetic developments in fine photography. But it is the images themselves—mysterious, moving, arresting—that make this such a noteworthy publication.