Why Photography Matters

Nonfiction, Art & Architecture, Photography
Cover of the book Why Photography Matters by Jerry L. Thompson, The MIT Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jerry L. Thompson ISBN: 9780262316873
Publisher: The MIT Press Publication: August 23, 2013
Imprint: The MIT Press Language: English
Author: Jerry L. Thompson
ISBN: 9780262316873
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication: August 23, 2013
Imprint: The MIT Press
Language: English

A lucid and wide-ranging meditation on why photography is unique among the picture-making arts.

Photography matters, writes Jerry Thompson, because of how it works—not only as an artistic medium but also as a way of knowing. With this provocative observation, Thompson begins a wide-ranging and lucid meditation on why photography is unique among the picture-making arts. He constructs an argument that moves with natural logic from Thomas Pynchon (and why we read him for his vision and not his command of miscellaneous facts) to Jonathan Swift to Plato to Emily Dickinson (who wrote “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant”) to detailed readings of photographs by Eugène Atget, Garry Winogrand, Marcia Due, Walker Evans, and Robert Frank. Forcefully and persuasively, he argues for photography as a medium whose business is not constructing fantasies pleasing to the eye or imagination, but describing the world in the toughest and deepest way.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A lucid and wide-ranging meditation on why photography is unique among the picture-making arts.

Photography matters, writes Jerry Thompson, because of how it works—not only as an artistic medium but also as a way of knowing. With this provocative observation, Thompson begins a wide-ranging and lucid meditation on why photography is unique among the picture-making arts. He constructs an argument that moves with natural logic from Thomas Pynchon (and why we read him for his vision and not his command of miscellaneous facts) to Jonathan Swift to Plato to Emily Dickinson (who wrote “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant”) to detailed readings of photographs by Eugène Atget, Garry Winogrand, Marcia Due, Walker Evans, and Robert Frank. Forcefully and persuasively, he argues for photography as a medium whose business is not constructing fantasies pleasing to the eye or imagination, but describing the world in the toughest and deepest way.

More books from The MIT Press

Cover of the book MOOCs by Jerry L. Thompson
Cover of the book The Radical Fool of Capitalism by Jerry L. Thompson
Cover of the book Digital Research Confidential by Jerry L. Thompson
Cover of the book The Strip by Jerry L. Thompson
Cover of the book Polarized America by Jerry L. Thompson
Cover of the book American Environmental Policy by Jerry L. Thompson
Cover of the book Algorithms Unlocked by Jerry L. Thompson
Cover of the book Feeding the Other by Jerry L. Thompson
Cover of the book Thieves of Virtue by Jerry L. Thompson
Cover of the book Metadata by Jerry L. Thompson
Cover of the book How Change Happens by Jerry L. Thompson
Cover of the book Transportation in a Climate-Constrained World by Jerry L. Thompson
Cover of the book Chasing Men on Fire by Jerry L. Thompson
Cover of the book Making Democracy Fun by Jerry L. Thompson
Cover of the book The Nine Elements of a Sustainable Campus by Jerry L. Thompson
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy