'Formerly considered marginal to the realm of art-making, documentary is now one of its foremost modes, Along with the attention paid to photojournalism and mainstream documentary-making in a time of crisis, this development has been accompanied by a rich strain of theoretical and historical writing. This anthology explores documentary's roots in modernism and its critique under postmodernism. It surveys current thinking about its ethical, political and aesthetic implications and examines a wide range of work by artists within, around or against documentary traditions. 

'Artists surveyed include: Kutlug Ataman, Ursula Biemann, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Hasan Elahi, Walker Evans, Harun Farocki, Omer Fast, Joan Fontcuberta, Regina José Galindo, David Goldblatt, Craigie Horsfield, Alfredo Jaar, Annemarie Jacir, Emily Jacir, Lisa F. Jackson, Philip Jones Griffiths, Dorothea Lange, An-My Le, Renzo Martens, Boris Mikhailov, Daido Moriyama, Walid Raad, Sebastião Salgado, August Sander, Sean Snyder.' (Back cover)

Documentary is one of the Documents of Contemporary Art series, co-published by Whitechapel Gallery and The MIT Press which document major themes and ideas in contemporary art. Other sourcebooks of the same series are also available in the Archive. For more details, please go to this page.