Camera Lucida
Camera Lucida

Author: Roland Barthes

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 1981

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 0374521344

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"Examining the themes of presence and absence, the relationship between photography and theatre, history and death, these 'reflections on photography' begin as an investigation into the nature of photographs. Then, as Barthes contemplates a photograph of his mother as a child, the book becomes an exposition of his own mind."--Alibris.

Foundations of Photography
Foundations of Photography

Author: George Pavlidis

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-10-03

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 3031062523

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This book offers an in-depth technical presentation of photography and details about the inner workings of the digital camera, while keeping the artistic principles in mind. Departing from the current stream, the book treats photography as a highly scientific and technical subject, and serves as a reference to those who seek for an understanding of the technical aspects relating to the photographic camera, the beating heart of photography. It offers insight on why the photographs are created the way they are, highlighting also the limitations. As the author of this book is an image technology scientist and a photography enthusiast who has been teaching photography for a long time, this treatise reflects his own constant search and study for an in-depth understanding.

Photography and the Optical Unconscious
Photography and the Optical Unconscious

Author: Shawn Michelle Smith

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2017-05-04

Total Pages: 430

ISBN-13: 0822372991

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Photography is one of the principal filters through which we engage the world. The contributors to this volume focus on Walter Benjamin's concept of the optical unconscious to investigate how photography has shaped history, modernity, perception, lived experience, politics, race, and human agency. In essays that range from examinations of Benjamin's and Sigmund Freud's writings to the work of Kara Walker and Roland Barthes's famous Winter Garden photograph, the contributors explore what photography can teach us about the nature of the unconscious. They attend to side perceptions, develop latent images, discover things hidden in plain sight, focus on the disavowed, and perceive the slow. Of particular note are the ways race and colonialism have informed photography from its beginning. The volume also contains photographic portfolios by Zoe Leonard, Kelly Wood, and Kristan Horton, whose work speaks to the optical unconscious while demonstrating how photographs communicate on their own terms. The essays and portfolios in Photography and the Optical Unconscious create a collective and sustained assessment of Benjamin's influential concept, opening up new avenues for thinking about photography and the human psyche. Contributors. Mary Bergstein, Jonathan Fardy, Kristan Horton, Terri Kapsalis, Sarah Kofman, Elisabeth Lebovici, Zoe Leonard, Gabrielle Moser, Mignon Nixon, Thy Phu, Mark Reinhardt, Shawn Michelle Smith, Sharon Sliwinski, Laura Wexler, Kelly Wood, Andrés Mario Zervigón

French Daguerreotypes
French Daguerreotypes

Author: Janet E. Buerger

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1989-11-14

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9780226079851

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Upon its introduction in 1839, the daguerreotype was hailed as a magical reflection of reality. Today, these early examples of the first practical photographic process offer fascinating windows into the past. The daguerreotypes collected here not only document the birth of photography and its aesthetic and historical legacy but also provide insight into French art and culture. Lavishly illustrated, this volume is the first complete catalog of the French daguerreotype collection of the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House. Janet E. Buerger uses this remarkable collection of images to produce a cultural history of the daguerreotype's most learned following—an elite group of mid-nineteenth-century intellectuals who sought to understand and develop the usefulness, potential, and beauty of this camera image. This varied group, including entrepreneurs, painters, scientists, and historians, enables Buerger to trace the influence of photography into virtually every area of nineteenth-century European intellectual life.