Product Description

From the first misty `heliograph' taken by Joseph Nicephore Niepce in 1826 to the classic compositions of Cartier-Bresson and Alfred Steiglitz, to the striking postmodern strategies of Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman and Victor Burgin, the history of photography is a record of dazzling and penetrating images. But photographs are also the most pervasive images of our time, infinite in their capacity to record and make moments significant, granting status to everything they touch. So how do we read a photograph? In a series of brilliant discussions of major themes and genres, Graham Clarke gives a clear and incisive account of the photograph's historical development, and elucidates the insights of the most interesting thinkers on the subject such as Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag. At the heart of the book is his ground-breaking examination of the main subject areas - landscape, the city, portraiture, the body, and reportage - and his detailed analysis of exemplary images in terms of their cultural and ideological contexts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20246 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 248 pages

Customer Reviews

An ideal approach...
I used this book as part of a photography module on my degree and found it a very useful and clear cut.

The ideas, advice and conventions in the book will help any photogrophy student as well as many artists on their way to creating well thought out imagery.

Clarkes accessable masterpiece!
Graham Clarke has given the kind of theoratical advice which will help any Photography student through the hard times a marvelous read which is easy to follow and explains the codes and conventions in which we are all governed by.. A must for all photographers!

Highly reccomended!!
This is such a useful book. Full of information of different types of photography such as portrait, landscape, the body, the city etc etc. It includes the historic background and images by some of the best photographers of all time

Good for a general intrest in photogaphy and especially as a source for students who study- it will definatly come in handy when im writing essays for college. One of the most reccomended books on photography.

BTW-Not about technical aspects or how to use cameras, lighting etc.