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Criticism and Commentary-

Photography the Key Concepts

Striving for Art

Photography, the Key Concepts by David Bate, Berg Publishers Where exactly does photography fit into the world of art? That photography is, or can be, “art” has been a settled question for a century or more. Far more difficult to answer is: what sorts of photographs are “art.” And, who is it that determines the […]
Disappearing Witness

In Search of Things as They Are

Disappearing Witness by Gretchen Garner. Johns Hopkins University Press. Gretchen Garner thinks documentary photography contributes something that is worth preserving. For much of the 20th Century,  that would have seemed like a ridiculously self-evident perspective. Documentary photography, or more precisely, what Garner refers to as spontaneous witness, dominated photography for most of the past century […]
Photography After Frank

Two Languages: Words and Pictures

Philip Gefter, Photography After Frank. “Many people approach the act of looking at photographs with an inherent blind spot. They need to know what it is before they can appreciate how it looks.” For me this statement, and the essay it is from, would alone have made reading Philip Gefter’s “Photography After Frank” worthwhile.  It […]
History of Photography Newhall

Thinking about Beaumont

The History of Photography by Beaumont Newhall. The Museum of Modern Art (1982 Edition) Beaumont Newhall’s History of Photography is so much a part of the history that it documents that it can be hard to read it today and evaluate the book on its own merits. I first read Newhall’s history more than 35 […]

How to Read a History of Photography

I’ve discovered a secret about reading histories and criticisms of photography. It’s the internet. Almost every book on photography contains a disclaimer from the author that he or she regrets that the practical limits of publication means the book cannot possibly include enough images to give the reader a complete picture of the photographers and […]
American Photography Orvell

A Narrative of Paradigms

American Photography by Miles Orvell, Oxford History of Art Series. In his introduction, Miles Orvell sets out a challenge for himself: to tell the history of photography in America as “a narrative of successive paradigms, rather than a string of masterpieces.” Presumably, by doing so, Orvell – Professor of English and American Studies at Temple […]
The Photograph Graham Clarke

Oxford History’s thought-provoking review of photography

The Photograph by Graham Clarke The Photograph by Graham Clarke is the first of three planned books on photography in the Oxford History of Art series. The second is American Photography by Miles Orvell. Sadly, the third volume, Contemporary Photography, has never been published. I was immediately disarmed when I started this book and read […]
The Nature of Photographs Shore

Buy this book and then read it again and again

The Nature of Photographs by Stephen Shore It’s hard to find good books that explore the nature of photography that are actually written by photographers. Stephen Shore is a modern master of photography. His book, The Nature of Photographs, proves that he’s a masterful writer on photography as well. It’s a brief volume. The actual […]
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