Basic Critical Theory for Photographers

Basic Critical Theory for Photographers ISBN 0 240 51652 4

Contents Basic Critical Theory for Photographers

How to use this book vii Frontispiece xi Foreword xiii Acknowledgements xvii 1 John Berger, Ways of Seeing 1 2 John Szarkowski, The Photographer's Eye and Stephen Shore, The Nature of Photographs 15 3 Susan Sontag, On Photography 30 4 Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida 76 5 Martha Rosler, In, Around and Afterthoughts (On Documentary Photography) 113 6 Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Inside/Out 125 7 Clive Scott, The Spoken Image: Photography and Language 133 8 Andy Grundberg, The Crisis of the Real 149 9 Raghubir Singh, River of Colour 159 10 Bertrand Russell, Appearance and Reality 169 11 Italo Calvino, The Adventures of a Photographer 172 12 Poems by Felix Morisseau-Leroy and George Szirtes 187 13 Robert Adams', John Baldessari's and Peter Godwin's Analysis of Particular Photographs

INTRODUCTION Basic Critical Theory for Photographers

Published in 1972 and based on a BBC television programme the exact same name, this is a very influential text on art criticism. Even though book and programme make exactly the same case, they are doing so in slightly various ways, and the programme is really worth watching. To the photographer, the book has got the good thing about putting photography in the context of western art. To the student a new comer to critical theory, it has the advantage of being produced for a mass audience, and has as a central aim the de-mystification of art. Both of these points allow it to be relatively simple to know.An extra advantage this book has is the fact that all students haven't had the opportunity to study photography, but have studied art, and so the book presents could possibly progression on their behalf once they begin to study photography.The tv programme is divided into four sections and even though book is split into seven chapters (three being composed solely of images), the book also covers four areas. The summary is of three of the four written chapters. Chapter 1. In this chapter, Berger points out what is involved in seeing, and how the way we see things is dependent upon what we know. He proceeds to reason that the real concept of many images continues to be obscured by academics, changed by photographic reproduction and distorted by monetary value. Chapter 3. In this chapter, Berger shows the way the nude in western art systematically objectified women, and how this tradition has been continued by photography. Chapter 5. Here, Berger argues that oil painting has, due to the realism, a powerful link to ownership and the buying power of money, and so often celebrates the power of money. This chapter is not summarized. Chapter 7. In this chapter, Berger further develops the link between ownership and art by critically looking at modern consumerist society and  publicity or advertising photography. Basic Critical Theory for Photographers
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