Full Description
Based on the highly successful course at the School of Visual Arts developed by the author, this book provides a comprehensive approach to the critical understanding of photography through an in-depth discussion of fifteen photographs and their contexts - historical, generic, biographical and aesthetic. This book presents an intensive course in looking at photographs, open to undergraduates and general audiences alike. Rexer argues that by concentrating on fifteen carefully chosen works it is possible to understand the history, development and contemporary situation of photography.
Looking to images by photographers such as Roland Fischer, Nancy Rexroth and Ernest Cole, The Critical Eye is the only book to address the totality of issues involved in photography, from authorial self-consciousness to the role of the audience. Its subjects are not limited to art photography but include vernacular images, commercial genres and anthropology. With every chapter it seeks to link the history of photography to current practice. This highly illustrated and beautiful book provides a much-needed introduction to image production.
Contents
Introduction: How Is a Photograph?
Life and Work: Does Biography Matter?
Reading Photographs: Decisions in and Beyond the Frame
The Origins of Photographies
Portraits: The Other Side of the Mask
Street Photography: Where the Sidewalk Ends
From Self-Portrait to Selfie: Memes Come True
Other Natures (Landscape in Five Views of Yosemite)
Beyond Fashion
Troubling Images: Don't Look Now
Them/Us
Abstraction in Photography: Picture Nothing
Photojournalism: A World of Witnesses
Unphotographable
Everybody's Pictures
