Art and Photography

Description

"Art and Photography" surveys a rich and important history, from the 1960s to the 21st century. Arranged thematically, it presents works by the most significant international artists who have explored and extended the boundaries of photography. This influential body of work by over 160 artists over four decades is contextualised in the "Documents" section by original artist's statements and interviews, as well as lucid reflections on photography by major thinkers of our era such as Roland Barthes and Jean Baudrillard. Today photography is art's pre-eminent medium. Photography pervades our visual culture. It has become what painting was in previous centuries: a universal language. Today's photographers are internationally admired as "the painters of modern life". Yet it took the whole of the 20th century for photography to reach this status. On its invention, the photograph was derided as a purely mechanical, "artless" medium which could never be considered among the fine arts. As the 20th century unfolded, Modernist movements experimented with the photograph and expanded its limits, yet still the art establishment held out. Only recently have the majority of art museums begun acquiring works of photography. In 1976, when the Museum of Modern Art, New York - one of the first institutions to collect photographs - staged a retrospective of the American colour photographer William Eggleston, this was a groundbreaking event: it was the first time colour photography had been exhibited, as art, in a major museum. This moment in the 1970s marked a dramatic sea change, but the tides had begun to turn in the early 1960s, when artists such as Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha and Gerhard Richter used the everyday, mass-produced quality of the snapshot as a basis for their work. From this early adoption of photography for its "artless" qualities, artists have explored photography extensively ever since, ranging from Richard Prince and Cindy Sherman's reflections on the visual messages of film and advertising, to the richly layered, 'painterly' genres of portraiture, landscape and still life in the work of Nan Goldin, Andreas Gursky, Roni Horn, Wolfgang Tillmans, Jeff Wall and others who have brought photography full circle, to the roles that painting fulfilled in past centuries.

David Campany is Senior Lecturer in the History and Theory of Photography at Surrey Institute of Art and Design, Farnham, England. A writer and artist, he was co-founder of the organization Photoforum, which brings together theorists and practitioners working in the photographic arts. His published work includes essays in Rewriting Conceptual Art, ed. Jon Bird and Michael Newman (Reaktion, 1999); Postcards on Photography: Photorealism and the Reproduction (Cambridge Darkroom, 1998); and Photography, Philosophy, Technology (Photoforum, 2003). Author's Residence: London

'Presented thematically, with succinct texts that are both readable and informative, the book meets both academic and general needs, without ever compromising the images in display.' Pictured, July 2003, UK 'Imagine the best group show of photographers you've ever seen. Now imagine it's a book. Campany skillfully curates the leading lights of post-1960 into a thematically arranged form with tempting essays by Barthes and Baudrillard into the bargain. It's timely survey that aspires to be the document of record for the most exciting, universal and accessible art form we've got.' i-D, July 2003 UK 'PHOTO STORY Art & Photography, edited by David Campany (Phaidon, GBP45), charts the acceptance of photography as an art form. Originally considered a mechanical process, photography is now one of the most widely practised arts. Exploring developments from the Sixties to the present day, this beautiful book covers every major school, style and name, and includes work by the likes of Jeff Wall, Andreas Gursky and Gillian Wearing. The perfect family album.' Vogue, UK, August 2003