- Publisher
- Thames & Hudson
- Published
- 2004
- Shelf
- photography: Criticism
- ISBN
- 0500203806
Criticism
The Photograph as Contemporary Art
Charlotte Cotton
A map of what photographers have been doing since photography entered the gallery, sorted into eight working approaches.
Why read it
Cotton's categories are the useful part. Deadpan, once removed, something and nothing, intimate life, and the rest give you a way to talk about contemporary work without falling back on whether you like it. The book is why a dispassionate picture of a car park can sit beside a staged tableau and both be understood.
Why own it
It is the standard survey, revised as the field moves, and the reproductions are good enough to argue from. Anyone commissioning photography should be able to point at a page and say this kind.
Who it is for
Art directors briefing photographers, and anyone who finds contemporary photography deliberately obscure.
Reading order
Book 6 of 6 in the photography reading order, the last one. See all 6
Read before thisCamera Lucida
Opens a search on AbeBooks, a network of independent and antiquarian sellers, which is where a good part of this shelf has to be found, because it is out of print.
Read next
Chosen because they argue with this one, not because a machine noticed they share a category.
Also on the·photography shelf