A prolonged, quiet unfolding of genius is what Jane Livingston, chief curator of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, calls the first century of National Geographic photography. Striving to portray our planet's remarkably diverse people, creatures, and landscapes, four generations of Geographic photographers have made their work an indelible part of our culture. When the Corcoran Gallery of Art, one of the nation's leading photographic museums, decided to organize an exhibition celebrating the National Geographic Society's centennial, their curators were granted complete access to the Society's formidable archives. "The Art of Photography at National Geographic", companion to the museum exhibition, presents 289 silver prints, autochromes, and full-color images from the Society's collections. Never before have the photographs in The Art of Photography been showcased as art; half of these works by 158 leading 19th- and 20th-century photographers are published here for the first time. "The Art of Photography" moves from the somber grace of early masterpieces like Henri Bechard's depictions of carved wooden balconies in Cairo, to the insightful humor of recent works like Chris Johns' portrait of two Canadians watching TV in a junked 1940s' sedan. Subjects and treatments range across space and time from the first undersea photograph to a shot of the moon taken by an Apollo 17 crew member, and portray the human experience as a Havasupai Indian cradles her infant and a Peruvian shepherd boy