The second edition of Why Art Photography? is an updated, expanded introduction to the ideas behind today’s striking photographic images. Lively, accessible discussions of key issues such as ambiguity, objectivity, fiction, authenticity, and photography’s expanding field are supplemented with new material around timely topics such as globalization, selfie culture, and photographers’ use of advanced digital technologies, including CGI and virtual reality.
The new edition includes:
- an expanded introduction
- extended chapters featuring emerging trends
- a larger selection of images, including new color images
- an improved and expanded bibliography
This new edition is essential for students looking to enrich their understanding of photography as a complex and multi-faceted art form.
List of Figures Introduction: Why Art Photography? 1 Hybrid Genres: Portraiture 2 Objectivity and Seriousness 3 Fictive Documents 4 Authenticity 5 Digital Dialogues: Spectacle and Spectators 6 Beyond Photography Bibliography Index
Biography
Lucy Soutter is a photographer, critic and art historian. She is Course Leader of the Photography Arts MA at the University of Westminster, UK. Her writings on contemporary art and photography include essays in The Photographic Object 1970 (2016), Girls! Girls! Girls! In Contemporary Art (2011), and Role Models: Feminine Identity in Contemporary Photography (2008).
Praise for the first edition:
'While documentary photography is generally well understood, the diverse traditions of conceptual, semi-factual or entirely fictional art photography remain a mystery to many. Why Art Photography? is an accessible and intelligent guide, which addresses key themes like "authenticity" and "objectivity" by examining the thought-provoking work of living, often younger, artists.' Sarah Thornton, author of Seven Days in the Art World
'The reader joins Soutter's class to gain access to the rarefied debates encountered at the cutting edge of contemporary art photography.' The Art Newspaper
'Soutter has accomplished her mission: to those in the know and those who want to be, she has explained not just the whys but the how-tos of contemporary art photography.' Source magazine
