Full Description
Sheona Beaumont addresses the untold story of biblical subjects in photography. She argues that stories, characters, and symbols from the Bible are found to pervade photographic practices and ideas, across the worlds of advertising and reportage, the book and the gallery, in theoretical discourse and in the words of photographers themselves.
Beaumont engages interpretative tools from biblical reception studies, art history, and visual culture criticism in order to present four terms for describing photography's latent spirituality: the index, the icon, the tableau, and the vision. Throughout her journey she includes lively discussion of selected fine art photography dealing with the Bible in surprising ways, from images by William Henry Fox Talbot in the 19th century to David Mach in the 21st. Far from telling a secular story, photography and the conditions of its representations are exposed in theological depth.; Beaumont skillfully interweaves discussion of the images and theology, arguing for the dynamic and potent voice of the Bible in photography and enriching visual culture criticism with a renewed religious understanding.
Contents
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: What You See Is What You Get
Part 1: Between Image and Word in the Interdisciplinary Landscape
Chapter 1: Interpretative Positions from Biblical Hermeneutics
Chapter 2: Interpretative Positions from Art History and Visual Culture Criticism
Chapter 3: Problems, Paradigms, and the CMYK Model
Part 2: The Theology of the Real in Photography and the Bible
Chapter 4: Index: Landscapes, Witnessing, and Documentary Traditions
Chapter 5: Icon: Identifying with Characters and Portraits
Chapter 6: Tableau: Storying the World in Scene and Narrative
Chapter 7: Vision: Shooting the Spiritual and the Apocalyptic
Conclusion: Seeing is Believing
Bibliography
