Who Shot Rock and Roll: A Photographic History,
1955 to the Present. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009
Two hundred and thirty spectacular photographs—sensual, luminous, frenzied, true—from 1955 to the present that catch, and define, the energy, intoxication, rebellion and magic of rock and roll; the first book to highlight the photographers who captured rock’s message of freedom and personal reinvention and to examine the effect of their pictures on the musicians, the fans and the culture itself.
To bring together these two hundred and thirty photographs plus 64 album and cd covers, Gail Buckland looked through the archives of one hundred photographers and agencies, selecting photographs not on the basis of the usual suspects, but on the power of the image itself, often picking unfamiliar photographs which have never previously been published in an anthology. Buckland describes the relationships between photographers and subjects, how portraits are made through collaboration and empathy, how photographers “see” the music and “stop” it at its emotional peak, and why these pictures resonate with millions. Like the music itself, rock and roll photographs changed the world and how we experience it.
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Reality Recorded: Early Documentary Photography. Greenwich, Ct: New York Graphic Society, 1974.
The story of how 19th century photographers, using the first cameras and earliest processes, documented their world—from family life to famines, from industrialization to the destruction of war.
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Fox Talbot and the Invention of Photography. Boston: David R. Godine, 1980.
“…Gail Buckland… writes with exemplary clarity and precision and with a keen sense, too, of the human drama that attended every aspect of its [photography’s] development. The book she has given us is at once learned, readable and where appropriate—especially in the penetrating discussion of Talbot’s own first photographs—it achieves an eloquence rarely to be found in a work containing so much original research….To both the history of photography and the literature of modern culture this book makes an important contribution....” —Hilton Kramer, New York Times Book Review, Aug. 17, 1980.
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Cecil Beaton War Photographs 1939-1945. London: Jane’s and Imperial War Museum,1981.
Although Beaton did not go to the front, his war photographs illuminate the breadth of the war and the men and women who fought it on the home front and abroad.
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The Golden Summer: The Photographs of Horace W. Nicholls. London: Pavilion, 1989.
Cecil Beaton used these photographs to do the costumes and sets for My Fair Lady.
“While these pictures [of Ascot, Derby, Henley, Cowes, etc] are highly evocative of Britain's ‘golden summer,’ the biography in the final third of the book is equally engaging…Buckland's writing, as always, is entertaining ….” —Ann Copeland, Library Journal.
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The American Century by Harold Evans with Gail Buckland and Kevin Baker. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.
“The pictures...are the best collected in any of the books on the century. Some are funny, some harrowing; and their captions can sizzle...” —Garry Wills, The New York Review of Books
“The brisk text breathes new life into even the best-remembered episodes, and the choice of historic photographs is superb...”—Geoffrey C. Ward, Washington Post Book World
“A wide-ranging, politically detached view of the shaping events of the century. It is excellent prose, with wonderful pictures….” —John Kenneth Galbraith
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America: The Story of Us by Kevin Baker. Art and Photography edited by Professor Gail Buckland. New York: History Channel, 2010.
This is the companion volume to the twelve-part History Channel series which tells the saga of America’s transformation from the land that awaited the earliest settlers to the complex democracy that elected Barak Obama. Bringing this incredible story visually alive was the job of Professor Buckland.
The Magic Image: The Genius of Photography from 1839 to the Present Day with Cecil Beaton: Boston: Little Brown & Co, 1975.
Considered one of the classic books on the history of photography.
“…remarkable book…major work of research, scholarship and judgment. It will stand for a long time.” —Irving Penn
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First Photographs: People, Places, & Phenomena as Captured for the First Time by the Camera. New York: Macmillan, 1980.
An idiosyncratic collection of mostly unfamiliar photographs pinpointing when things were recorded by the camera for the first time.
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Travelers in Ancient Lands: A Portrait of the Middle East, 1839-1919 with Louis Vaczek. Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1981.
A portrait in early photographs and text of the Middle East from the time of the invention of photography to the end of the Ottoman Empire. Described and pictured are magnificent ruins, diverse peoples and holy places.
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The White House in Miniature. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994.
A history of the White House told room by room, illustrated with photographs of the miniature White House made by John and Jan Zweifel.
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Shots in the Dark: True Crime Pictures. New York: A Bulfinch Press Book, 2001.
Based on the Court TV documentary, a riveting collection of history’s most starling crime photographs and the stories behind them.
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The Spirit of Family by Al and Tipper Gore with Gail Buckland and Katy Homans. New York: Henry Holt, 2002.
The photographs, taken in the 1980s and 1990s by leading photographers, show the remarkable diversity and emotional richness of the changing face of American families.
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They Made America From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators with Gail Buckland and David Lefer. New York: Little Brown and Company, 2004.
Companion to the WGBH public television series of the same name.
“Terrific and inspiring stories about the dreamers and doers who dared to create the modern face of this great nation.”—Jack Welch, former C.E.O., General Electric