Saturday 12 January 2013

Crisis of the Real: Andy Grundberg

Borrowed this one from the library some time back. It's essentially a selection/compilation of critical essays looking at a range of photographers and issues in modern photography and was recommended by Simon, my tutor, to help me start thinking about some of the recommended photographers.

I found most of it a very interesting and thought provoking read, although I would have to admit to dipping in and out rather than attempting to read everything. For the record it was the first thing I have read that openly questioned the work of Ansel Adams suggesting that he reduced the majestic to simple scenery. In some quarters this would be seen as heresy.

By contrast his essay on Robert Adams was considerably more positive, suggesting that by including signs of humanity his images were at once both more convincing and more disturbing.

Sadly, I had to return this book before I really had a chance to get my teeth into it, but another reference that stuck in my mind, and needs further investigation, is the idea that it is no longer enough for a photo to be of something – it has to be something, it has to be an object, to succeed in the art world.

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