Fifty Key Writers on Photography

297 Pages·2013·1.695 MB·English

by  Mark Durden

FIFTY KEY WRITERS ON
PHOTOGRAPHY
Fifty Key Writers on Photography introduces some of the most significant
writers on photography who have played a major part in defining and
influencing our understanding of the medium. It provides a succinct
overviewof writing on photography from a diverse rangeof disciplines
and perspectives, and examines the shifting perception of the medium
over the course of its 170-year history. Key writers discussed include:
(cid:1) Roland Barthes
(cid:1) Susan Sontag
(cid:1) Jacques Derrida
(cid:1) Henri Cartier-Bresson
(cid:1) Geoffrey Batchen.
Fully cross-referenced and in an A–Z format, this is an accessible and
engaging introductory guide.
Mark Durden is Professor of Photography at the University of
Wales, Newport.
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM ROUTLEDGE
Photography: History and Theory
Jae Emerling
978-0-415-77855-8
Reframing Photography: Theory and Practice
Bill Anthes and Rebekah Modrak
978-0-415-77920-3
The Visual Culture Reader
Edited by Nicholas Mirzoeff
978-0-415-78262-3
FIFTY KEY WRITERS
ON PHOTOGRAPHY
Edited by
Mark Durden
Firstpublished2013
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2013MarkDurden,selectionandeditorialmaterial;individualchapters,thecontributors.
Therightoftheeditortobeidentifiedastheauthoroftheeditorialmaterial,andofthe
authorsfortheirindividualchapters,hasbeenassertedinaccordancewithsections77and
78oftheCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedorutilisedinany
formorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,nowknownorhereafterinvented,
includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinanyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,
withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublishers.
Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksorregisteredtrademarks,
andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanationwithoutintenttoinfringe.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Fiftykeywritersonphotography/[compiledby]MarkDurden.
pagescm.–(Routledgekeyguides)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Photography.2.Photographyliterature.3.Technologywriters–Biography.
4.Photographers–Biography.I.Durden,Mark.II.Title:50keywritersonphotography.
TR185.F542013
770.92’2–dc23
2012026136
ISBN:978-0-415-54944-8(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-415-54945-5(pbk)
ISBN:978-0-203-07495-4(ebk)
TypesetinBembo
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
CONTENTS
Alphabetical List of Entries vi
Contributors ix
Preface xviii
FIFTY KEY WRITERS ON PHOTOGRAPHY 1
Glossary 256
Index 264
v
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF
ENTRIES
James Agee (1909–1955) 3
Malek Alloula (1937–)7
Roland Barthes (1915–1980) 11
Georges Bataille (1897–1962) 15
Geoffrey Batchen (1956–)21
Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) 26
Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) 30
André Bazin (1918–1958) 36
Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) 40
John Berger (1926–)46
Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) 51
Brassaï (1899–1984) 56
Victor Burgin (1941–)61
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) 66
Jean-François Chevrier (1954–)72
vi
ALPHABETICALLISTOFENTRIES
Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) 76
Lady Eastlake (1809–1893) 82
Elizabeth Edwards (1952–)87
Peter Henry Emerson (1856–1936) 93
Walker Evans (1903–1975) 98
Vilém Flusser (1920–1991) 104
Gisèle Freund (1908–2000) 109
Michael Fried (1939–) 114
Clement Greenberg (1909–1994) 119
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) 125
bell hooks (1952–) 129
Ian Jeffrey (1942–) 134
Max Kozloff (1933–) 139
Siegfried Kracauer (1889–1966) 145
Rosalind E. Krauss (1941–) 149
Carol Mavor (1957–) 154
Kobena Mercer (1960–) 159
László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946) 165
Daido Moriyama (1938–) 171
Wright Morris (1910–1998) 175
Beaumont Newhall (1908–1993) 180
vii
ALPHABETICALLISTOFENTRIES
Marcel Proust (1871–1922) 185
Jacques Rancière (1940–) 189
Martha Rosler (1943–) 195
Allan Sekula (1951–) 200
Rebecca Solnit (1961–) 204
Abigail Solomon-Godeau (1947–) 208
Susan Sontag (1933–2004) 214
Jo Spence (1934–1992) 218
David Levi Strauss (1953–) 223
John Szarkowski (1925–2007) 228
John Tagg (1949–) 235
William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877) 240
Henri Van Lier (1921–2009) 246
Mike Weaver (1937–) 250
viii
CONTRIBUTORS
Jan Baetens is Professor of Cultural and Literary Studies at the
University of Leuven, Belgium. He has published widely on word
and image studies, mainly in so-called minor genres such as the
photonovel and the comics. He is currently co-directing a research
programme on the historiography of modernist literature (see
www.mdrn.be). Among his recent publications are The Unwanted
Self: Photography from the Low Countries, co-edited with David Green
(2008), and a special issue of History of Photography on ‘glocalization’
(vol 35, no 2, 2011).
MalcolmBarnardisSeniorLecturerinVisualCultureatLoughborough
University,UK,whereheteachesthehistoryand theoryofart and
design.Hisinterestslieinthetheoriesandphilosophiesoffashionand
graphic design, and they are turning increasingly to photographic
theory. His background is in recent French philosophy and he is
the author of Graphic Design as Communication (2005), Fashion as
Communication (2002), Approaches to Understanding Visual Culture
(2001) and Art, Design and Visual Culture (1998). He is also the
editor of Fashion (2011) and Fashion Theory (2007).
GeoffreyBatchenistheauthorofBurningwithDesire:TheConceptionof
Photography (1997,withsubsequenttranslationsintoSpanish,Korean
and Japanese), Each Wild Idea: Writing, Photography, History (2001),
Forget Me Not: Photography and Remembrance (2004), William Henry
Fox Talbot (2008), What of Shoes: Van Gogh and Art History (2009,
inGermanandEnglish),andSuspendingTime:Life,Photography,Death
(2010, in Japanese and English). He has also edited an anthology of
essays entitled Photography Degree Zero: Reflections on Roland Barthes’s
Camera Lucida (2009) and co-edited another entitled Picturing
Atrocity: Photography in Crisis (2012). He is currently working on a
bookforYaleUniversityPresson thefirst20years of photography
intheUK.BatcheniscurrentlyProfessorofArtHistoryatVictoria
University of Wellington in New Zealand.
ix