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Routledge What Photography Is by James Elkins - Art Criticism

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Description
What Photography Is offers a profound exploration of photography's enigmatic nature through extended dialogue with Roland Barthes's seminal Camera Lucida. James Elkins examines photography's paradoxical power to reveal meaninglessness alongside significance, investigating how images penetrate consciousness with lasting impact. The book challenges conventional understanding of the medium, drawing parallels to Elkins's acclaimed analysis of oil painting in What Painting Is. Extensively illustrated with diverse imagery, this critical work explores the emotional and philosophical dimensions of photographic practice, making it essential reading for students of visual culture, photographers seeking theoretical grounding, and anyone interested in how photography shapes human perception and meaning-making in contemporary life.

Key Features

James Elkins applies his distinctive critical methodology to photography, examining the medium's strange power through philosophical and psychological frameworks.

The book engages deeply with Roland Barthes's Camera Lucida, using imaginary dialogue to develop original arguments about photographic meaning.

Extensively illustrated examples demonstrate how photography captures both meaningful subjects and visual meaninglessness across diverse genres and styles.

What Photography Is explores the visceral impact of powerful images, analysing how photographs create permanent impressions on human consciousness.

Published by Routledge, this academic work serves artists, scholars and photography enthusiasts seeking rigorous theoretical analysis of the medium.

The text investigates photography's unique capacity to show us things we may not want or need to see, revealing the medium's complex relationship with truth.

Product Specifications
Brand
Routledge
Model
Illustrated
Format
hardcover
ASIN
041599568X
Category
Books > Subjects > Arts & Photography > Photography & Video > Criticism & Essays
Domain
Amazon UK
Release Date
26 September 2009
Listed Since
11 March 2009

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