Photographic Theory: An Historical Anthology

Photographic Theory: An Historical Anthology offers contemporary readers a comprehensive resource of pertinent articles and information spanning the history of photographic theory, including critical texts first published in Alfred Stieglitz’s seminal journal, Camera Work . Chronologically–organized readings address the entire sweep of photographic theory and thought—from its pre–history and emergence circa 1839; through its evolution within Pictorialism, Modernism, and Postmodernism; and into its startling metamorphosis within contemporary digital imaging. Interdisciplinary issues such as photography’s relationships to vision, identity, and memory are also examined. Readings reveal the main debates and issues surrounding the nature of photography:  What is photography? Is it objective, subjective, or somehow both? Is a photographic print a document, an index, and/or a work of art? Is digital photography “photography” at all? Etc. Embodying the entirety of photographic intellectual history, Photographic Theory vividly illustrates the dramatic storylines and impassioned debates that continue to swirl within photographic theory—and is a volume that is certain to click with scholars and students alike.

Acknowledgements General Introduction I. Before Photography to Invention: c. 380 B.C.E.–1839 Camera/Vision 1. Excerpts from the Allegory of the Cave. In The Republic Plato 2. The Function of the Eye, As Explained by the Camera Obscura Leonardo Da Vinci 3. Description of the Camera Lucida William H. Wollaston Art/History 4. Excerpts on Linear Perspective. In On Painting . Leon Battista Alberti 5. Account of the late Mr. [Robert] Barker Anonymous 6. Description of the Process of Painting and Effects of Light Invented by Daguerre, and Applied by Him to the Pictures of the Diorama Louis–Jacques–Mandé Daguerre II. Invention to Pictorialism: 1839–c. 1880 What is Photography? 7. Some Account of the Art of Photogenic Drawing William Henry Fox Talbot 8. The Pencil of Nature. A New Discovery Nathaniel Parker Willis and Timothy O. Porter 9. Report [on the Daguerreotype to the Chamber of Deputies] Dominique François Arago Art/History 10. Upon Photography in an Artistic View, and in Its Relations to the Arts Sir William J. Newton 11. La Photographie Antoine Joseph Wiertz 12. Photography Lady Elizabeth Eastlake Camera/Vision 13. The Stereoscope and the Stereograph Oliver Wendell Holmes 14. Combination Printing. In Pictorial Effect in Photography Henry Peach Robinson 15. Annals of My Glass House Julia Margaret Cameron III. Pictorialism to/and/vs. Modernism: c. 1880–c. 1920 Camera/Vision 16. Focussing. In Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art Peter Henry Emerson 17. The Death of Naturalistic Photography Peter Henry Emerson 18. The Hand Camera—Its Present Importance Alfred Stieglitz Interdisciplinary Approaches 19. Photo–Chemical Investigations and a New Method of Determination of the Sensitiveness of Photographic Plates Ferdinand Hurter and Vero C. Driffield 20. Logic as Semiotic: The Theory of Signs Charles Sanders Peirce 21. Intuition and Art. In Æsthetic: As Science of Expression and General Linguistic Benedetto Croce 22. The Cinematographical Mechanism of Thought and the Mechanistic  Illusion...In Creative Evolution Henri Bergson What Should Photographs Look Like? 23. On the "Straight Print" Robert Demachy 24. What is a "Straight Print"? Frederick H. Evans 25. Photography and Artistic–Photography Marius De Zayas IV. Modernism to Postmodernism: c. 1920–c. 1960 Camera/Vision 26. Photography and the New God Paul Strand 27. Light: A Medium of Plastic Expression László Moholy–Nagy 28. Seeing Photographically Edward Weston 29. The Camera′s Glass Eye Clement Greenberg What Should Photographs Look Like? 30. Aims Albert Renger–Patzsch 31. A Personal Credo Ansel Adams 32. Our Illustrations Frank R. Fraprie 33.  Photography at the Crossroads Berenice Abbott Art /History 34. Excerpts from Perspective as Symbolic Form Erwin Panofsky 35. The Age of the World Picture Martin Heidegger 36. Excerpts from Museum Without Walls André Malraux Interdisciplinary Approaches 37. Photography and Typography Jan Tschichold 38. The Making of a Film. In Film as Art Rudolph Arnheim 39. The Ontology of the Photographic Image. In What Is Cinema? André Bazin What is Photography? 40. Mechanism and Expression, the Essence and Value of Photography Franz Roh 41. Introduction to The Decisive Moment Henri Cartier–Bresson 42. Photography Siegfried Kracauer V. Modernism and Postmodernism to Digital Imaging: c. 1960–c. 1990 Art/History 43. Equivalence: The Perennial Trend Minor White 44. Perspective. In Languages of Art Nelson Goodman 45. Can There Ever Again Be a History of Photography? Peter C. Bunnell 46. Introduction to Before Photography: Painting and the Invention of Photography Peter Galassi 47. New Metaphorics: Spirit and Symbol in Contemporary Landscape Photography Gretchen Garner Camera/Vision 48. Introduction to The Photographer′s Eye John Szarkowski 49. Post–Visualization Jerry Uelsmann 50. Introduction to New Topographics William Jenkins Interdisciplinary Approaches 51. Excerpts from The World Viewed Stanley Cavell 52. Notes on the Index: Seventies Art in America Rosalind Krauss 53. Photography and Fetish Christian Metz 54. Film, Photography, and Fetish: The Analyses of Christian Metz Ben Singer What is Photography? 55. On the Nature of Photography Rudolf Arnheim 56. Photography, Vision, and Representation Joel Snyder and Neil Allen 57. The Directorial Mode: Notes Toward a Definition A. D. Coleman 58. Selections from Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Photographic Realism Kendall L. Walton 59. The Photograph as Post–Industrial Object: An Essay on the Ontological Standing of Photographs Vilém Flusser Identity/Politics 60. The Traffic in Photographs Allan Sekula 61. Of Mother Nature and Marlboro Men: An Inquiry into the  Cultural Meanings of Landscape Photography Deborah Bright 62. Excerpts from Right of Inspection Jacques Derrida 63. Fetal Images: The Power of Visual Culture in the Politics of Reproduction Rosalind Pollack Petchesky VI. Postmodernism and Digital Imaging (Return to Pictorialism?): c. 1990–c. 2010 What is Digital Photography? 64. The Transcendental Machine? A Comparison of Digital Photography and Nineteenth–Century Modes of Photographic Representation Diana Emery Hulick 65. Photojournalism in the Age of Computers Fred Ritchin 66. Phantasm: Digital Imaging and the Death of Photography. In Metamorphoses Geoffrey Batchen 67. Escaping Reality: Digital Imagery and the Resources of Photography Barbara E. Savedoff 68. Fixing the Art of Digital Photography: Electronic Shadows Ellen Handy 69. Digital Ontologies: The Ideality of Form in/and Code Storage: Or: Can Graphesis Challenge Mathesis? Johanna Drucker Identity/Politics 70. Do Not Doubt the Dangerousness of the 12–Inch–Tall Politician David Wojnarowicz 71. The Politics of Focus: Feminism and Photography Theory Lindsay Smith 72. Re–Picturing Photography: A Language in the Making Aphrodite Désirée Navab 73. A Painful Labour: Responsibility and Photography Sharon Sliwinski Camera/Vision 74. Clement Greenberg and Walker Evans: Transparency and Transcendence Mike Weaver 75. The Shadows on the Wall. In The Reconfigured Eye:Visual Truth in the Post–Photographic Era William J. Mitchell 76. Of Fish, Birds, Cats, Mice, Spiders, Flies, Pigs, and Chimpanzees: How Chance Casts the Historic Action Photograph into Doubt Robin Kelsey Art/History 77. The Invisible Dragon: On Beauty I Dave Hickey 78. The Idiom in Photography as the Truth in Painting Rosemary Hawker 79. "Impressed by Nature′s Hand": Photography and Authorship Douglas R. Nickel Photography and Memory 80. Surviving Images: Holocaust Photographs and the Work of Postmemory Marianne Hirsch 81. Visualizing Memory: Photographs and Biography Deborah Willis 82. Remembering September 11: Photography as Cultural Diplomacy Liam Kennedy 83. Through a Glass, Darkly: Photography and Cultural Memory Alan Trachtenberg Interdisciplinary Approaches 84. Curiosity and Conjecture: Mathematics, Photography, and the Imagination David Travis 85. Image as Trace: Speculations about an Undead Paradigm Peter Geimer 86. The Photographic Argument of Philosophy Alexander Sekatskiy Works Cited and Further Reading

Andrew E. Hershberger is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art History and Chair of Art History at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. He has published numerous journal articles in History of Photography, Art Journal, Early Popular Visual Culture, Analecta Husserliana, Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, Academe, and Arts of Asia .