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| The Photograph as Contemporary Art (World of Art) | 
 enlarge | Author: Charlotte Cotton
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy New: $10.36
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Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 44611
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.9 x 0.6
ISBN: 0500203806
Dewey Decimal Number: 770
EAN: 9780500203804
ASIN: 0500203806
Publication Date: November 29, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The first accessible guide to the key artists and uses of photography in contemporary art since the mid-1980s. An ideal introduction to this popular subject in contemporary culture, this highly readable book surveys work by more than 150 artist-photographers: Andreas Gursky, Nan Goldin, Philip-Lorca di Corcia, Richard Billingham, Jurgen Teller, Thomas Demand, Yinka Shonibare, Thomas Ruff, Jeff Wall, Wolfgang Tillmans, and many more. More than 200 examples of the most important works are illustrated. Themed chapters consider subjects such as narrative and storytelling in art photography, photographing the everyday and the insignificant, the use of photography in conceptual art, and the cool, detached, objective aesthetic prevalent in current art photography. 210 illustrations, 100 in color.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
Info-Packed and Insightful, With Only Minor Imperfections December 15, 2004
37 out of 42 found this review helpful
This information-packed paperback, which is relatively small for an art book, has an Introduction and seven chapters. The Intro specifies that the book is a "the kind of overview you might experience if you visited exhibitions in a range of venues." After summarizing the chapters, the Intro concludes with descriptions of photographers who are "figureheads" or "cornerstones" of contemporary artistic photography: Eggleston, Shore, the Bechers, Keita, Goldblatt, and Meatyard.
Chapter 1, "If This Is Art," covers photos for which the artist has created an event prior to the shutter's being released. Among the artists discussed are Philip-Lorca diCorcia and Erwin Wurm. As a small problem, three of the photographs are reproduced at a rather small size (<15 square cm).
In Chapter 2, "Once Upon a Time," the author writes of photography in which "narrative is loaded into a single frame," which the author also calls "tableau photography." The prototypic artist here is Jeff Wall.
The next two chapters are my least favorite in the book. Chapter 3, "Deadpan," concerns a "cool, detached and keenly sharp type of photography." Many of the "deadpan" photographers, such as Andreas Gursky and Thomas Struth, were influenced by the Bechers and use large photos to convey their points. Chapter 4, "Something and Nothing," discusses still lifes, architecture, and nature shots that "push[] the boundaries of what might be considered a credible visual subject." Maybe I'm missing the point, but I fail to understand how many of the photos (e.g., of car panels in a doorway, a globe in a window, and a pink fabric bow) are artful.
Chapter 5's theme, "Intimate Life," encompasses work by photographers such as Larry Clark, Nan Goldin, and Wolfgang Tillmans. Chapter 6's theme, "Moments in History," does not relate to photojournalism, but rather to "aftermath photography" and the documentation of various groups of people in an almost anthropological fashion. If Chapter 3 suffers from the book's inability to show the photos close to their full size, Chapters 5 and 6 suffer from the book's inability to show sequences of photos by each artist.
Chapter 7, "Revived and Remade," is my favorite. This concentrates on photographs that "exploit[] our pre-existing knowledge of imagery." Works by Joan Fontcuberta, Thomas Ruff, Cindy Sherman, Gillian Wearing, and others make one think hard about the nature of photography.
The back pages give references for further reading, a list of the over 200 photos (giving dimensions of the originals etc.), and an index of photographers (who hail from many countries). Overall the book is well-written and insightful. Don't miss this book at Amazon.com!
 A good supplement to visiting art galleries. July 20, 2005
16 out of 46 found this review helpful
The photographs shown here are not really of popular appeal. There are no scarlet sunsets, romping puppies, or laughing children. Actually, there is exactly one photograph among the 217 nicely reproduced images that clearly might be enjoyed by most people. This is Esko Mannikko's color photograph of a Finnish dairy farmer, in his rustic kitchen, smoking a cigaret while feeding a baby lamb with a baby's milk bottle. In addition, there is one image from Bernd and Hilla Becher's irresistable series of odd-shaped water towers.
The book includes photographs from a number of famous, but otherwise lacking in popular appeal, photographers, e.g., Steven Shore, Thomas Struth, Joel Sternfeld, William Eggleston, and Cindy Sherman. Also included are a great many photographs created by lesser known artists. Nearly all of the photographs are somewhat puzzling, in that it is not clear how they could be construed as being compelling or interesting, how they could provide insight into the world as we know it, or how they could be construed as being "art." For example, the book includes Ruth Erdt's picture of an ordinary boy on a beach, Uta Barth's picture of a window with smudges, Marketa Othova's picture of a bland livingroom, and Jeff Wall's picture of a mop. Nevertheless, there are some gems to be found in this generous collection of 217 photographs. We learn about Nina Katchadourian's photographs of mushrooms, where the naturally occurring cracks are "repaired" with bicycle tire patches, or of naturally torn spider webs, "repaired" with red thread. We learn of Georges Rousse's technique of painting white areas within a garage or barn so that when viewed from one angle, it looks like the circular beam of an intense spotlight. The author Charlotte Cotton should have mentioned John Pfahl's book (Altered Landscapes (1981) Friends of Photography) at this point. John Pfahl is likely the pioneer at this attractive technique. We learn of Axel Hutte's technique of displaying a large transparency, mounted in front of a mirror, to create a glistening effect. We learn of Wim Delvoye's method of altering photographs of cliffs and monuments, so that they bear some casual or trite message, such as "Out walking the dog. Back soon. Tina." We learn of Joan Fontcuberta's fanciful technique of fabricating mermaid fossils, mounting them in rugged areas by the seashore, and photographing the installation. We learn of Susan Derges' appealing method of placing huge sheets of photographic paper at the bottom of a stream or brook, and letting the moon expose the paper, resulting in a feathery pattern. We learn of Vik Muniz' re-creation of a famous photograph of Jackson Pollack, caught in the act of doing an action painting, where Vik Muniz' re-creation consisted of dribbled chocolate syrup, dribbled to reproduce the original photographic image. Then, of course, there are some gloriously tacky photographs by Martin Parr, including a close up of custard bars with pink frosting festooned with multicolored sprinkles, and another photograph of a puppy wearing sunglasses having rainbow-colored rims. Martin Parr has also created an unpublished portfolio of signs from the village of Boring, Oregon. Also, Martin Parr has published an amusing collection of boring (not tacky, not gaudy, just boring) postcards called Boring Postcards USA (2000) Phaidon Press.
To summarize, nearly all of the images in Charlotte Cotton's book are essentially uninteresting, too dull to warrent any comment, or with little apparent ability to stimulate amusement, outrage, solace, or insight. But the utility of this book is that everyone will surely be able to find at least two or three interesting photographers here, and thus be enabled to seek out monographs of these particular artists.
 A Good Survey December 11, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I am a photographer. I also live in New York City where I wander through art galleries displaying photographs with which I have a hard time coming to grips. Charlotte Cotton's book seemed to be aimed right at me.
What distinguishes a contemporary art photograph from other beautiful photographs is not always clear, but like Supreme Court Justice Stewart, I know it when I see it. From what the author suggests, it may be that contemporary art photography is less concerned with the form and more with the content, and that viewers are meant to be semiologists decoding what a photograph stands for.
Cotton begins her book with an introduction that includes a taxonomy of contemporary art photography, and to the extent that classifying an object helps us to know and understand it, the introduction alone justifies the book. Surprisingly, rather than look at style or subject matter, she organizes the book based upon the photographers' motivations and working practices. For example one of the classes is pictures of events that have been specifically organized to be photographed while another is pictures that aim to reproduce or refer back to something in the history of photography and other arts.
Each of the classes is allocated a chapter, and allocates a paragraph each to the work several artists, along with a representative photograph. Cotton explains how the photograph fits into the genre and explains something of the meaning of the work. Most of the photographs are just large enough to provide some appreciation of the work and the explanations are as concise as possible.
The book is meant to be a survey and so is more useful for providing a framework for understanding the overall categories than appreciating any individual picture. It should also be noted that the book does not cover a great deal of recent popular photography like the works of Annie Liebovitz or Art Wolfe. I expect that these photographers are seen as working in an older tradition and that they are not "post modern", again, whatever that means.
For the individual who is trying to get his arms around the direction and meaning of much of modern art photography, as well as for people who have dismissed contemporary art photography as unfathomable, this book will provide a good introduction, particularly since Cotton doesn't seem to be tied to the language of deconstruction, but rather speaks without jargon. Yet this is a field of such great variety that even if one read all of the hundreds of books listed by the author for further reading, one would have only scratched the surface.
A Great Introduction March 9, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book is a great introduction to understanding the world of contemporary photography. I have appreciated how the chapters are set-up as a look into the main branches of contemporary photography. If you are a photographer, it can help you discover more people who are doing work which relates to your work or inspires you. Because it has information about so many different photographers it cannot cover them all as thoroughly as one might like; however, it acts as a wonderful springboard into further research. I have found it very useful in searching for great works of photography.
Almost got it... September 6, 2005
4 out of 15 found this review helpful
This is a very constipated read. For such a small book, it took me more (a lot more) than the usual. Although I found very interesting the works, and photographers, chosen, it lacks works, and photographers, that will make it a complete reference guide.
It leaves you wanting more, but still good a learning experience.
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