Photography Theory in Historical Perspective

Helen Westgeest is editor and one of the authors of Take Place: Photography and Place from Multiple Perspectives (2009).

Introduction.

Structure of the Book

What is a "Medium"?

Framing the Focus of the Book.

Analog Versus Digital.

The Overlap of Themes.

1 Representation in Photography: The Competition with Painting.

Photography, Objectivity, and Representation.

Straight and Composed Photography: The Impact of the Digital.

Photographs as Iconic Index of the Reality Represented.

Aura, Authenticity, and Reproducibility in Photography.

Painting-like Photographs Versus Photo-like Paintings as Multimediating Pictures: The Question of Color.

Sharp and Blurred Photographs: Transparency and Hypermediacy.

2 Time in Photography: The Rivalry with Time-Based Arts.

Barthes's That-has-Been and Punctum.

Time Exposure and Instantaneity in Photographs.

Serial Documentation and the Decisive Moment.

Presence and Absence in Photography: Replaced Images Versus Objects of Contemplation.

3 Place and Space in Photography: Positioning Toward Virtual Places and Spatial Objects.

Constructed Places in Relation to Places That Exist(ed).

Monocular Perspective Investigated Through Divergent and Poly-ocular Perspectives.

Spatial Photographs as Extension of the Photo as Two-dimensional Image.

4 Photography's Social Function: The Documentary Legacy.

"Photography Against the Grain".

Photography, Text, and Context.

(Post-)Documentary Photographs as Art. Color, and the Politics of (Re)Presentation.

Critical Approaches of Advertising and Fashion Photography.

5 Self-reflective Photography.

Photography as Record of the Reflection of Light.

Reflections on Taking Photographs: Photograph–Camera–Photographer.

The Photograph as Product of a Process of Reflection.

Psychoanalytic Theories Projected in Photography.

From Self-reflective Digital Photography Back to Classical Mirror Mythologies.

Glossary.

References.

Credits and sources.

Index.

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