Papers by Colin Edgington
Review: Understanding a Photograph by John Berger and Words Not Spent Today Buy Smaller Images Tomorrow: Essays on the Present and Future of Photography, by David Levi Strauss
Afterimage, May 1, 2015
Speculary Tactics
Afterimage, Nov 1, 2011
Understanding a Photograph
Comparative Technology Transfer and Society, May 1, 2015
Understanding a Photograph By John Berger Aperture Foundation, 2013 176 pp./$24.95 (hb) Words Not... more Understanding a Photograph By John Berger Aperture Foundation, 2013 176 pp./$24.95 (hb) Words Not Spent Today Buy Smaller Images Tomorrow: Essays on the Present and Future of Photography By David Levi Strauss Aperture Foundation, 2014 192 pp./$29.95 (sb) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The flow of contemporary criticism feels as ephemeral as the melting snow--measured thoughts that flutter into our vision momentarily, get buried under timelines, and are swept to the back "pages" of a digital "paper." In light of this, there remains a place for physical books, whose innards represent the earnest and sincere efforts of a thinker tackling tough questions and attempting to slow things down in search of deeper understanding. Two recent publications, the re-release in November 2013 of John Berger's Understanding a Photograph and the release in May 2014 of David Levi Strauss s Words Not Spent Today Buy Smaller Images Tomorrow: Essays on the Present and Future of Photography represent just that. Both texts, published in the series Aperture Ideas: Writers and Artists on Photography, provide nearly half a century of writing on photography and the social and political spheres in which images are disseminated and used. Berger's collection of essays is arranged in chronological order and includes an introduction by Geoff Dyer, who also edited this edition. Throughout the book, Berger examines the images of artists as well as images, both famous and not, by anonymous photographers, while exploring themes such as agony, ambiguity, politics, ideology, ecology, reality, and photography as art. Strauss's collection of essays is broken into five parts, each containing five essays. Strauss, like Berger before him, examines the work of artists and writers. He also extends his focus to themes such as memory and magic; events such as 9/11, Tahrir Square, and Occupy Wall Street; and image-based controversies such as those surrounding the cellphone images from Abu Ghraib. What is central to these two texts, threaded throughout, is a concern with the effects of images, their meanings, and how they are ultimately used in various contexts throughout the social sphere. To publish these two books in direct succession is to honor the connection between the texts and the influence of Berger on Strauss (Berger also wrote the introduction to Strauss's 2003 book Between the Eyes: Essays on Photography and Politics). It is clear from the first essay, "Image of Imperialism," originally published in 1968, that the re-release of Berger's collection is as potent and meaningful today as it must have been after its first publication. This essay takes as its starting point one of the photographs taken of a deceased Ernesto "Che" Guevara as his body was displayed by the Bolivian government for the world press in Vallegrande, Bolivia, on October 10, 1967. Berger's assessment, written before the circumstances of Che's death were more widely distributed and known, takes aim at the intent of the image's making which, as Berger states, "was to put an end to a legend" (15). By allowing the world press to photograph Guevara's corpse, the whole world would know of the revolution's end. However, as Berger states, "its effect may have been very different" (15) in that it provided a reverential springboard for his mythification, his martyrdom. Berger then works through the production of the image, examining how Guevara is displayed, how the men peer over him, and the angle of the shot. Drawing comparisons to Rembrandt van Rijn's painting The Anatomy of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp from 1632 and Andrea Mantegna's Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. 1480), he reveals how the photograph's visual relationship to these earlier iconic works contributes to its power. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In his essay "Over Bin Laden's Dead Body," Strauss explores the conscious decision by the American government not to release a 2011 image of the dead bin Laden. …
New Brunswick, NJ May 2010 ii Table of Contents I. Dedication iii II. Acknowledgments iv
Understanding a Photograph
Understanding a Photograph By John Berger Aperture Foundation, 2013 176 pp./$24.95 (hb) Words Not... more Understanding a Photograph By John Berger Aperture Foundation, 2013 176 pp./$24.95 (hb) Words Not Spent Today Buy Smaller Images Tomorrow: Essays on the Present and Future of Photography By David Levi Strauss Aperture Foundation, 2014 192 pp./$29.95 (sb) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The flow of contemporary criticism feels as ephemeral as the melting snow--measured thoughts that flutter into our vision momentarily, get buried under timelines, and are swept to the back "pages" of a digital "paper." In light of this, there remains a place for physical books, whose innards represent the earnest and sincere efforts of a thinker tackling tough questions and attempting to slow things down in search of deeper understanding. Two recent publications, the re-release in November 2013 of John Berger's Understanding a Photograph and the release in May 2014 of David Levi Strauss s Words Not Spent Today Buy Smaller Images Tomorrow: Essays on the Present and Future of Photography ...
In Dream and Soil: A Conversation with Bea Nettles
Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism
Speculary Tactics
Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism
Review: The Time After, by Doug Fogelson
Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism
Review: Understanding a Photograph by John Berger and Words Not Spent Today Buy Smaller Images Tomorrow: Essays on the Present and Future of Photography, by David Levi Strauss
Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism
Uploads
Papers by Colin Edgington