Publisher Description

Hershberger is the winner of a 2015 Insight Award from the Society for Photographic Education for his work on this book and for his overall contributions to the field! Photographic Theory: An Historical Anthology presents a compendium of readings spanning ancient times to the digital age that are related to the history, nature, and current status of debates in photographic theory.

• Offers an authoritative and academically up-to-date compendium of the history of photographic theory
• Represents the only collection to include ancient, Renaissance, and 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century writings related to the subject
• Stresses the drama of historical and contemporary debates within theoretical circles
• Features comprehensive coverage of recent trends in digital photography
• Fills a much-needed gap in the existing literature

Back Cover

PHOTOGRAPHIC THEORY An Historical Anthology Edited by Andrew E. Hershberger "A canonical volume long overdue, smartly constructed, comprehensive and up-to-date, Hershberger's introductory commentaries are thoughtful, and insightful. Readers uninitiated and scholarly alike will find much to appreciate. Highly recommended!" Fredrik Marsh, Guggenheim Fellow "Hershberger brings the theoretical lineage of photography together in a delightful chronology from early notions of the image to today's digital revolution. It constructs a historical framework for the novice, and provides titillating insights for the cognoscenti." Robert Ladislas Derr, The Ohio State University Photographic Theory: An Historical Anthology offers contemporary readers a comprehensive resource of pertinent articles and information spanning the history of photographic theory, including critical texts first published in Alfred Stieglitz's seminal journal, Camera Work . Chronologically-organized readings address the entire sweep of photographic theory and thought--from its pre-history and emergence circa 1839; through its evolution within Pictorialism, Modernism, and Postmodernism; and into its startling metamorphosis within contemporary digital imaging. Interdisciplinary issues such as photography's relationships to vision, identity, history, and memory are also examined. Readings reveal the main debates and issues surrounding the nature of photography: What is photography? Is it objective, subjective, transparent, and/or transcendent? Is a photograph a document, a trace, a fetish, an index, and/or a work of art? Is digital photography "photography" at all? Etc. Embodying the entirety of photographic intellectual history, Photographic Theory vividly illustrates the dramatic storylines and impassioned debates that continue to swirl within photographic theory--and is a volume that is certain to click with scholars and students alike.

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PHOTOGRAPHIC THEORY An Historical Anthology Edited by Andrew E. Hershberger "A canonical volume long overdue, smartly constructed, comprehensive and up-to-date, Hershberger's introductory commentaries are thoughtful, and insightful. Readers uninitiated and scholarly alike will find much to appreciate. Highly recommended!" Fredrik Marsh, Guggenheim Fellow "Hershberger brings the theoretical lineage of photography together in a delightful chronology from early notions of the image to today's digital revolution. It constructs a historical framework for the novice, and provides titillating insights for the cognoscenti." Robert Ladislas Derr, The Ohio State University Photographic Theory: An Historical Anthology offers contemporary readers a comprehensive resource of pertinent articles and information spanning the history of photographic theory, including critical texts first published in Alfred Stieglitz's seminal journal, Camera Work . Chronologically-organized readings address the entire sweep of photographic theory and thought--from its pre-history and emergence circa 1839; through its evolution within Pictorialism, Modernism, and Postmodernism; and into its startling metamorphosis within contemporary digital imaging. Interdisciplinary issues such as photography's relationships to vision, identity, history, and memory are also examined. Readings reveal the main debates and issues surrounding the nature of photography: What is photography? Is it objective, subjective, transparent, and/or transcendent? Is a photograph a document, a trace, a fetish, an index, and/or a work of art? Is digital photography "photography" at all? Etc. Embodying the entirety of photographic intellectual history, Photographic Theory vividly illustrates the dramatic storylines and impassioned debates that continue to swirl within photographic theory--and is a volume that is certain to click with scholars and students alike.

Author Biography

Andrew E. Hershberger is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art History and Chair of Art History at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. He has published numerous journal articles in History of Photography, Art Journal, Early Popular Visual Culture, Analecta Husserliana, Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, Academe, and Arts of Asia.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1 1 Before Photography to Invention: c. 380 B.C.E.–1839 9 Camera/Vision 11 1.1 Excerpts from the Allegory of the Cave. In The Republic 12
Plato, c. 380 B.C.E. 1.2 The Function of the Eye, As Explained by the Camera Obscura 17
Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1520 1.3 Description of the Camera Lucida 19
William H. Wollaston, 1807 Art/History 23 1.4 Excerpts on Linear Perspective. In On Painting 24
Leon Battista Alberti, 1540 1.5 Account of the late Mr. [Robert] Barker 29
Anonymous, 1806 1.6 Description of the Process of Painting and Effects of Light Invented by Daguerre, and Applied by Him to the Pictures of the Diorama 31
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, 1839 2 Invention to Pictorialism: 1839–c. 1880 35 What is Photography? 37 2.1 Some Account of the Art of Photogenic Drawing 38
William Henry Fox Talbot, 1839 [March] 2.2 The Pencil of Nature. A New Discovery 44
Nathaniel Parker Willis and Timothy O. Porter, eds., 1839 [April] 2.3 Report [on the Daguerreotype to the Chamber of Deputies] 48
François Arago, 1839 [July] Art/History 55 2.4 Upon Photography in an Artistic View, and in Its Relations to the Arts 56
Sir William J. Newton, 1853 2.5 La Photographie 59
Antoine Joseph Wiertz, 1855 2.6 Photography 61
Eastlake, Lady (Elizabeth) 1857 Camera/Vision 67 2.7 The Stereoscope and the Stereograph 68
Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1859 2.8 Combination Printing. In Pictorial Effect in Photography 72
Henry Peach Robinson, 1869 2.9 Annals of My Glass House 76
Julia Margaret Cameron, 1874 3 Pictorialism to/and/vs. Modernism: c. 1880–c. 1920 81 Camera/Vision 83 3.1 Focussing. In Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art 84
Peter Henry Emerson, 1890 3.2 The Death of Naturalistic Photography 88
Peter Henry Emerson, 1890 3.3 The Hand Camera — Its Present Importance 91
Alfred Stieglitz, 1896 Interdisciplinary Approaches 95 3.4 Photo-Chemical Investigations and a New Method of Determination of the Sensitiveness of Photographic Plates 96
Ferdinand Hurter and Vero C. Driffield, 1890 3.5 Logic as Semiotic: The Theory of Signs 100
Charles Sanders Peirce, c. 1900 3.6 Intuition and Art. In Æsthetic: As Science of Expression and General Linguistic 105
Benedetto Croce, 1902 3.7 The Cinematographical Mechanism of Thought and the Mechanistic Illusion…. In Creative Evolution 108
Henri Bergson, 1907 What Should Photographs Look Like? 113 3.8 On the Straight Print 114
Robert Demachy, 1907 3.9 What is a "Straight Print"? 118
Frederick H. Evans, 1907 3.10 Photography and Artistic-Photography 121
Marius de Zayas, 1913 4 Modernism to Postmodernism: c. 1920–c. 1960 123 Camera/Vision 125 4.1 Photography and the New God 126
Paul Strand, 1922 4.2 Light: A Medium of Plastic Expression 130
László Moholy-Nagy, 1923 4.3 Seeing Photographically 132
Edward Weston, 1943 4.4 The Camera's Glass Eye 136
Clement Greenberg, 1946 What Should Photographs Look Like? 139 4.5 Aims 140
Albert Renger-Patzsch, 1927 4.6 A Personal Credo 142
Ansel Adams, 1943 4.7 Our Illustrations 147
Frank R. Fraprie, 1943 4.8 Photography at the Crossroads 150
Berenice Abbott, 1951 Art/History 155 4.9 Excerpts from Perspective as Symbolic Form 156
Erwin Panofsky, 1927 4.10 The Age of the World Picture 161
Martin Heidegger, 1938/52 4.11 Excerpts from Museum Without Walls 164
André Malraux, 1947 Interdisciplinary Approaches 169 4.12 Photography and Typography 170
Jan Tschichold, 1928 4.13 The Making of a Film. In Film as Art 174
Rudolph Arnheim, 1932 4.14 The Ontology of the Photographic Image. In What Is Cinema? 176
André Bazin, 1945 What is Photography? 181 4.15 Mechanism and Expression, the Essence and Value of Photography 182
Franz Roh, 1929 4.16 Introduction to The Decisive Moment 188
Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1952 4.17 Photography 192
Siegfried Kracauer, 1960 5 Modernism and Postmodernism to Digital Imaging: c. 1960–c. 1990 199 Art/History 201 5.1 Equivalence: The Perennial Trend 202
Minor White, 1963 5.2 Perspective. In Languages of Art 207
Nelson Goodman, 1968 5.3 Can There Ever Again Be a History of Photography? 211
Peter C. Bunnell, 1975 5.4 Introduction to Before Photography: Painting and the Invention of Photography 214
Peter Galassi, 1981 5.5 New Metaphorics: Spirit and Symbol in Contemporary Landscape Photography 219
Gretchen Garner, 1988 Camera/Vision 225 5.6 Introduction to The Photographer's Eye 226
John Szarkowski, 1966 5.7 Post-Visualization 232
Jerry Uelsmann, 1967 5.8 Introduction to New Topographics 235
William Jenkins, 1975 Interdisciplinary Approaches 239 5.9 Excerpts from The World Viewed 240
Stanley Cavell, 1971 5.10 Notes on the Index: Seventies Art in America 246
Rosalind Krauss, 1977 5.11 Photography and Fetish 251
Christian Metz, 1985 5.12 Film, Photography, and Fetish: The Analyses of Christian Metz 256
Ben Singer, 1988 What is Photography? 263 5.13 On the Nature of Photography 264
Rudolf Arnheim, 1974 5.14 Photography, Vision, and Representation 269
Joel Snyder and Neil Walsh Allen, 1975 5.15 The Directorial Mode: Notes Toward a Definition 276
A. D. Coleman, 1976 5.16 Selections from Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Photographic Realism 284
Kendall L.Walton, 1984 5.17 The Photograph as Post-Industrial Object: An Essay on the Ontological Standing of Photographs 290
Vilém Flusser, 1986 Identity/Politics 295 5.18 The Traffic in Photographs 296
Allan Sekula, 1981 5.19 Of Mother Nature and Marlboro Men: An Inquiry into the Cultural Meanings of Landscape Photography 302
Deborah Bright, 1985 5.20 Excerpts from Right of Inspection 310
Jacques Derrida, 1985 5.21 Fetal Images: The Power of Visual Culture in the Politics of Reproduction 315
Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, 1987 6 Postmodernism and Digital Imaging (Return to Pictorialism?): c. 1990–c. 2010 319 What is Digital Photography? 321 6.1 The Transcendental Machine? A Comparison of Digital Photography and Nineteenth-Century Modes of Photographic Representation 322
Diana Emery Hulick, 1990 6.2 Photojournalism in the Age of Computers 329
Fred Ritchin, 1990 6.3 Phantasm: Digital Imaging and the Death of Photography. In Metamorphoses 334
Geoffrey Batchen, 1994 6.4 Escaping Reality: Digital Imagery and the Resources of Photography 338
Barbara E. Savedoff, 1997 6.5 Fixing the Art of Digital Photography: Electronic Shadows 344
Ellen Handy, 1998 6.6 Digital Ontologies: The Ideality of Form in/and Code Storage — or — Can Graphesis Challenge Mathesis? 350
Johanna Drucker, 2001 Identity/Politics 355 6.7 Do Not Doubt the Dangerousness of the 12-Inch-Tall Politician 356
David Wojnarowicz, 1991 6.8 The Politics of Focus: Feminism and Photography Theory 359
Lindsay Smith, 1992 6.9 Re-Picturing Photography: A Language in the Making 365
Aphrodite Désirée Navab, 2001 6.10 A Painful Labour: Responsibility and Photography 370
Sharon Sliwinski, 2004 Camera/Vision 377 6.11 Clement Greenberg and Walker Evans: Transparency and Transcendence 378
Mike Weaver, 1991 6.12 The Shadows on the Wall. In The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era 382
William J. Mitchell, 1992 6.13 Of Fish, Birds, Cats, Mice, Spiders, Flies, Pigs, and Chimpanzees: How Chance Casts the Historic Action Photograph into Doubt 384
Robin Kelsey, 2009 Art/History 389 6.14 The Invisible Dragon: On Beauty I 390
Dave Hickey, 1991 6.15 The Idiom in Photography as the Truth in Painting 394
Rosemary Hawker, 2002 6.16 "Impressed by Nature's Hand": Photography and Authorship 399
Douglas R. Nickel, 2009 Photography and Memory 407 6.17 Surviving Images: Holocaust Photographs and the Work of Postmemory 408
Marianne Hirsch, 2001 6.18 Visualizing Memory: Photographs and the Art of Biography 412
Deborah Willis, 2003 6.19 Remembering September 11: Photography as Cultural Diplomacy 415
Liam Kennedy, 2003 6.20 Through a Glass, Darkly: Photography and Cultural Memory 421
Alan Trachtenberg, 2008 Interdisciplinary Approaches 425 6.21 Curiosity and Conjecture: Mathematics, Photography, and the Imagination 426
David Travis, 2003 6.22 Image as Trace: Speculations about an Undead Paradigm 429
Peter Geimer, 2007 6.23 The Photographic Argument of Philosophy 436
Alexander Sekatskiy, 2010 Works Cited and Further Reading 440 Credits, Sources, and Acknowledgments 449 Acknowledgments 454 Index 456

Review

"There can be no question that those of us who teach the history of photography – and our students – have been put most deeply in Hershberger's debt."  (History of Photography Online, 1 June 2015) "This chronologically (and, to a lesser extent, thematically) organized selection of key contributions to photographic theory display both the highly exciting diversity of theoretical questions raised by the emergence, development, triumph, and eventual metamorphosis of photography and the amazing possibility to organize the sometimes savage heterogenity of this material along unobtrusive and simple art-historical lines." - Leonardo Online (1 February 2014) "…our students need more reference books such as this one with a clear theoretical focus and a special attention to clarity. …this important book will undoubtedly be instructive and rewarding for a variety of readers; it would seem to be essential for libraries in Anglophone universities. In a world of infinite commentary about images, theoretical reflections are much needed and this comprehensive book provides many useful answers. In sum, Hershberger's Photographic Theory aptly reconfirms Wiley-Blackwell's excellent reputation for companions and readers in the visual arts and cultural theory." - British Journal of Aesthetics, (June 2016)
"Judging from this selection and the intuitive organization of the texts, it is clear that Hershberger knows his field very well. …In his abundant selection, the editor achieves an appreciable balance between the famous essays by the indispensable authors (like Erwin Panofsky or Rudolph Arnheim) and, by contrast, some interesting discoveries of essays by lesser-known theoreticians." - British Journal of Aesthetics, (June 2016)    

Long Description

"A canonical volume long overdue, smartly constructed, comprehensive and up-to-date, Hershberger's introductory commentaries are thoughtful, and insightful.

Review Text

"There can be no question that those of us who teach the history of photography – and our students – have been put most deeply in Hershberger’s debt."  (History of Photography Online, 1 June 2015) "This chronologically (and, to a lesser extent, thematically) organized selection of key contributions to photographic theory display both the highly exciting diversity of theoretical questions raised by the emergence, development, triumph, and eventual metamorphosis of photography and the amazing possibility to organize the sometimes savage heterogenity of this material along unobtrusive and simple art-historical lines." - Leonardo Online (1 February 2014) “…our students need more reference books such as this one with a clear theoretical focus and a special attention to clarity. …this important book will undoubtedly be instructive and rewarding for a variety of readers; it would seem to be essential for libraries in Anglophone universities. In a world of infinite commentary about images, theoretical reflections are much needed and this comprehensive book provides many useful answers. In sum, Hershberger’s Photographic Theory aptly reconfirms Wiley-Blackwell’s excellent reputation for companions and readers in the visual arts and cultural theory.” - British Journal of Aesthetics, (June 2016)
“Judging from this selection and the intuitive organization of the texts, it is clear that Hershberger knows his field very well. …In his abundant selection, the editor achieves an appreciable balance between the famous essays by the indispensable authors (like Erwin Panofsky or Rudolph Arnheim) and, by contrast, some interesting discoveries of essays by lesser-known theoreticians.” - British Journal of Aesthetics, (June 2016)     ?A canonical volume long overdue, smartly constructed, comprehensive and up-to-date, Hershberger's introductory commentaries are thoughtful, and insightful.  Readers uninitiated and scholarly alike will find much to appreciate.  Highly recommended!? ? Fredrik Marsh, Guggenheim Fellow ?Hershberger brings the theoretical lineage of photography together in a delightful chronology from early notions of the image to today?s digital revolution. It constructs a historical framework for the novice, and provides titillating insights for the cognoscenti.?  - Robert Ladislas Derr, The Ohio State University

Review Quote

"There can be no question that those of us who teach the history of photography - and our students - have been put most deeply in Hershberger's debt." ( History of Photography Online , 1 June 2015) "This chronologically (and, to a lesser extent, thematically) organized selection of key contributions to photographic theory display both the highly exciting diversity of theoretical questions raised by the emergence, development, triumph, and eventual metamorphosis of photography and the amazing possibility to organize the sometimes savage heterogenity of this material along unobtrusive and simple art-historical lines." - Leonardo Online (1 February 2014) "...our students need more reference books such as this one with a clear theoretical focus and a special attention to clarity. ...this important book will undoubtedly be instructive and rewarding for a variety of readers; it would seem to be essential for libraries in Anglophone universities. In a world of infinite commentary about images, theoretical reflections are much needed and this comprehensive book provides many useful answers. In sum, Hershberger's Photographic Theory aptly reconfirms Wiley-Blackwell's excellent reputation for companions and readers in the visual arts and cultural theory." - British Journal of Aesthetics, (June 2016) "Judging from this selection and the intuitive organization of the texts, it is clear that Hershberger knows his field very well. ...In his abundant selection, the editor achieves an appreciable balance between the famous essays by the indispensable authors (like Erwin Panofsky or Rudolph Arnheim) and, by contrast, some interesting discoveries of essays by lesser-known theoreticians." - British Journal of Aesthetics, (June 2016)

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