intraspace: the review lounge

Friday, February 02, 2007

photography speaks

photography speaks, by brooks johnson (ed)

i'm getting a bit behind on my reviews... so this is a book i read a month or two ago.

i picked this up during one of my book grabs at the local library - i'm not sure what attracted me to it, but i suppose i wanted to know about some of the thought that goes into photography.

the book contains excerpts from the writings of 150 photographers talking about different aspects of their photography and photography in general. it is nicely set up - the text is one page of writing and one typical photograph from each of the photographers.

anyway, the book turned out to be very historical. it provides a good insight into the development of photography as an artform. much of the writing is photographers arguing that what they are doing is in fact art - highlighting a controversy that extended from the invention of the process until as late as the early 1980s. that controversy has now passed (although its effects are still felt in the art market), so many of the issues that these photographers contended with have now also passed. for that reason, the book didn't give me any insight for my own art - which is what i had been hoping for.

so, not a bad book - but more interesting for discovering the history of photography than anything else.

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