The Meaning of Photography

With essays by Geoffrey Batchen, Francois Brunet, Mary Ann Doane, Jose Luis Falconi, Robin Kelsey, Douglas R. Nickel, Blake Stimson, and John Tagg, and additional contributions by Lars Kiel Bertelsen, Anne McCauley, Jorge Ribalta, John Roberts, Eric Rosenberg, Eric C. Shiner, and Bernd Stiegler Photo essays by Sharon Harper, Lilla LoCurto and Bill Outcault, Fiona Tan, and Akram Zaatari How can we write the histories of photography? How should art history and visual studies integrate the special technical and aesthetic challenges posed by the medium and respond to the intense interest it has provoked in the art world in recent years? In this timely volume, fifteen leading scholars discuss the discipline, practice, historiography, and study of photography, from William Henry Fox Talbot to Louise Lawler, and reflect on the status of photography today. In addition, the book features works by important contemporary artists that probe and illustrate these same issues, together offering new perspectives on the field and what photography means to us in the early 21st century.

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Robin Kelsey is John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. Blake Stimson is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of California, Davis.