'Since its introduction nearly 200 years ago, photography has become part of everyday life, a position consolidated by the recent development of digital imaging and manipulation. Used to confirm identity, to sell products, to reshape the real, to visualize the news, to record and communicate the personal moment, and as an art form in its own right, photography is now one of the most accessible and pervasive of media. 

Photography: The Key Concepts provides an ideal guide to the place of photography in our society and to the extraordinary range of photographic genres. Outlining the history of photography and explaining the body of theory which has built up around its use, the book leads the reader through the genres of documentary, portraiture, landscape, still life, art and global photography. Illustrated with a range of historical and contemporary images and case material, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in photography.' - from back cover

Designed for students, the book includes annotated guides to further reading and questions for essays and class discussion.
Access level

Onsite

author
Location code
REF.BAD2
Language

English

Publication/Creation date

2013

Edition

Reprint Edition

No of pages

199

ISBN / ISSN

9781845206673

No of copies

1

Content type

monograph

Chapter headings

Introduction

Genre

Approaches

Introduction Summary

1 History

Definitions

Historical Problems

The History of Photography

Photography as Discourse

Photographs as Historical Objects

Historical Example

Photographic Knowledge

Plural Meanings

Chapter Summary

2 Photography Theory

A Short History of Photography Theory

Theory of Representation

The Language of Photography

Points of View

Denotation – The Visual Signifiers

Connotations – The Cultural Signified

Realism and Reality

Poststructuralism

Chapter Summary

3 Documentary and Story-telling

Editorial Control

Auteur Photographers

Democratic Vision

How the Other Half Lives

Reportage

'Decisive Moment' as Peripateia

Staging Reality

Eyewitness

Reality and Representation

Desire to See

Colour Documentary

Tableaux on the Street

Chapter Summary

4 Looking at Portraits

Identity

The Industrial Portrait

Mass Portraiture

Bureaucratic Portraits

Elements of a Portrait

'Reading' Portraits

Recognition

Identification

Narcissism and Looking

Projection

The Blank Expression

Chapter Summary

5 In the Landscape

Vision and Knowledge

History of Landscape

Beauty and the Sublime

Photographic Vision

Exploration

Aesthetics of Description

Composure

Panoramas

Conclusion

Chapter Summary

6 The Rhetoric of Still Life

Advertising

Critique of Advertising

Advertising Agency

Social Fantasy

Product Shots

Techniques

The Art of Description

Still-life Sub-genres

Hyperbole

The New Objectivity

Rhetoric of the Image

The Object Image

Chapter Summary

7 Art Photography

Art

Autonomy

Mediums

Painting and Photography

Paradigms

Photography in Contemporary Art

The Pictorial Paradigm

Conceptual Art

Street Photography

'Fine art' photography

Postmodernism

Art as Global Industry

Chapter Summary

8 Global Photography

The Globalization of Photography

The Flow of Photography

World Photography

Critique of Universalism

Local Readings

The World Wide Web

The Digital Photograph

Image Dissemination

Chapter Summary

Photography: The Key Concepts
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Photography: The Key Concepts