The Media of Photography

by Diarmuid Costello, Dominic McIver Lopes

Overview

Two events in particular occasion this volume on the philosophy of photography: the blurring of boundaries that many took to demarcate photographic technology and practices from other representational and artistic technologies and the invention of digital photography. The purpose of this volume is not to revive older questions by asking what, if anything, still distinguishes photography in the light of these developments, but to consider sundry questions about the materials and tools—or media—of photography from a variety of perspectives.

• critically examines classic and influential arguments in philosophy of photography
• addresses recent trends in photographic art, such as conceptualism and appropriation
• highlights philosophically neglected elements of photographic art, such as performativity and self-portraiture
• reexamines the role of photographic media in photographic art practices
• offers new perspectives of the impact of digital technologies on photography
• explores the relationship between photographic art and photography in other arts (comics and music) and in science
• brings a range of philosophical methodologies and traditions into dialogue
• incorporates extended discussions of the work of important photographers and artists who use photography (e.g. Friedlander, Gursky, Lawlor)
• illustrates philosophical points with reproductions, many of them not widely known
• closely connects philosophical theory to the details of photographic practice
• offers original and novel theories of the aesthetic, artistic, and epistemic values of photographs

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118269015
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	03/07/2012
Series:	Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.35(d)

About the Author

Diarmuid Costello is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick, Chair of the British Society of Aesthetics and Co-Director of the AHRC 'Aesthetics after Photography' research project. He has co-edited two other collections on photography: Photography after Conceptual Art for Art History (November 2009) and Agency and Automatism for Critical Inquiry (Summer 2012). His articles have appeared in the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, the British Journal of Aesthetics, Critical Inquiry and Rivista di Estetica. He is working on two longer projects: On Photography and Art after Aesthetics? 

Dominic McIver Lopes is Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of Understanding Pictures (1996), Sight and Sensibility: Evaluating Pictures (2005), and A Philosophy of Computer Art (2009) in addition to papers on such topics as depiction, the ontology of art, theories of art and aesthetic value. He is now revising a manuscript of book entitled Beyond Art while writing another book on four artistic uses of photographic media.

Table of Contents

The Media of Photography

Diarmuid Costello Dominic Mclver Lopes

Introduction Diarmuid Costello Dominic Mclver Lopes 1

Transparent Representation: Photography and the Art of Casting Peter Alward 9

Fiction, Nonfiction, and Deceptive Photographic Representation Paloma Atencia-Linares 19

Photographic Art: An Ontology Fit to Print Christy Mag Uidhir 31

Digital Pictures, Sampling, and Vagueness: The Ontology of Digital Pictures John Zeimbekis 43

Facing the Camera: Self-portraits of Photographers as Artists Dawn M. Wilson 55

Photography as Performative Process Richard Shusterman 67

Artwork and Document in the Photography of Louise Lawler Sherri Irvin 79

The Macro and the Micro: Andreas Gursky's Aesthetics Bence Nanay 91

The Question Concerning Photography Diarmuid Costello 101

A Musical Photograph? Richard Beaudoin Andrew Kania 115

Drawings of Photographs in Comics Roy T. Cook 129

Photography and Knowledge Scott Walden 139

Depiction, Detection, and the Epistemic Value of Photography Laura Perini 151

Contributors 161