books from the theory shelf. Would be considered as starting places in a course approaching the image making process. These are theory texts. Use these to build out a vocabulary. Build that vocabulary into your dictionary of ideas and image prompts.

— Barthes, Image-Music-Text. “consists of thirteen essays published by Roland Barthes between 1961 and 1973. As a whole, the pieces track Barthes’ movement from an influential early theorist of semiotic analysis and structuralism to his emergence as a major poststructuralist thinker. Sometimes, indeed, one essay will challenge, revise, and correct the preceding essay: having offered an “Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative” (1966), the next essay, “The Struggle with the Angel” (1971), asserts that it is attempting “textual analysis,” not structural analysis. Stylistically, the essays include methodically analytical essays laden with highly specialized terminology (like “Structural Analysis”), ” see this

— Barthes, Camera Lucida. This title served as prompt for me to pull out this list of texts. “The book investigates the effects of photography on the spectator (as distinct from the photographer, and also from the object photographed, which Barthes calls the “spectrum”).”

— Bolton, The Contest of Meaning. The Contest of Meaning summarizes the challenges to traditional photographic history that have developed in the last decade out of a consciously political critique of photographic production. Contributions by a wide range of important Americans critics reexamine the complex—and often contradictory—roles of photography within society. Douglas Crimp, Christopher Phillips, Benjamin Buchloh, and Abigail Solomon Godeau examine the gradually developed exclusivity of art photography and describe the politics of canon formation throughout modernism. Catherine Lord, Deborah Bright, Sally Stein, and Jan Zita Grover examine the ways in which the female is configured as a subject, and explain how sexual difference is constructed across various registers of photographic representation. Carol Squiers, Esther Parada, and Richard Bolton clarify the ways in which photography serves as a form of mass communication, demonstrating in particular how photographic production is affected by the interests of the powerful patrons of communications. The three concluding essays, by Rosalind Krauss, Martha Rosler, and Allan Sekula, critically examine the concept of photographic truth by exploring the intentions informing various uses of “objective” images within society. from publisher

— Burgin, Thinking Photography “The essays presented in this collection contribute to the[ THEN , 1982] emerging theory of photography, aiming to establish a materialist analysis that transcends traditional criticisms. They explore the significance of photography as a practice of signification within specific social contexts, advocating for an interdisciplinary approach that acknowledges the complex relationships between representation and the represented. Key discussions include the distinction between photography theory and criticism, sociological dimensions of photographic institutions, and the importance of meaning production in understanding photography’s role in society.

— Campany, The Cinematic, “The cinematic has been a springboard for the work of many influential artists, including Victor Burgin, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Stan Douglas, Nan Goldin, Douglas Gordon, Cindy Sherman, and Jeff Wall, among others. Much recent cinema, meanwhile, is rich with references to contemporary photography. Video art has taken a photographic turn into pensive slowness; photography now has at its disposal the budgets and scale of cinema. This addition to Whitechapel’s Documents of Contemporary Art series surveys the rich history of creative interaction between the moving and the still photograph, tracing their ever-changing relationship since early modernism.”

— Cotton, The Photograph as Contemporary Art, “Arranged thematically, the book reproduces work from a vast span of photographers”

— Sontag, On Photography, “In On Photography, Sontag examines the history and contemporary role of photography in society. She contrasts the work of Diane Arbus with Depression-era documentary photography and explores the evolution of American photography from Walt Whitman‘s idealistic notions to the cynicism of the 1970s.”

— Trachtenberg, Classic Essays on Photography, 1980, “Containing 30 essays that embody the history of photography, this collection includes contributions from Niepce, Daguerre, Fox, Talbot, Poe, Emerson, Hine, Stieglitz, and Weston, among others.” Alan Trachtenberg was Neil Gray, Jr., Professor Emeritus of English and American Studies at Yale University.