Photography and Collaboration: From Conceptual Art to Crowdsourcing

Description

Photography and Collaboration offers a fresh perspective on existing debates in art photography and on the act of photography in general. Unlike conventional accounts that celebrate individual photographers and their personal visions, this book investigates the idea that authorship in photography is often more complex and multiple than we imagine - involving not only various forms of partnership between photographers, but also an astonishing array of relationships with photographed subjects and viewers. Thematic chapters explore the increasing prevalence of collaborative approaches to photography among a broad range of international artists - from conceptual practices in the 1960s to the most recent digital manifestations. Positioning contemporary work in a broader historical and theoretical context, the book reveals that collaboration is an overlooked but essential dimension of the medium's development and potential.

Daniel Palmer is Associate Dean of Graduate Research and Associate Professor in the Art History and Theory Program at Monash University, Australia. He was formerly a Curator at the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne, Australia.

Daniel Palmer's Photography and Collaboration impacts many of our conventional views, and it does so with substantial force. The book offers a number of important new arguments about collaboration in photographic practices, and synthesizes a great deal of material in ways that compel us to re-imagine much of what we thought we knew about the history of photography. * Alexander Alberro, Barnard College/Columbia University, USA * Daniel Palmer's new book, Photography and Collaboration, is a fascinating and invaluable contribution to the literature on contemporary art and to the history of photography. It is remarkable for his attention to the actual practice of photography. This is important because understanding how to take photographs is a problem, a learned craft and a set of rules to be flouted that all artists negotiate in different ways but for precise reasons. Palmer explains the sequence of reasons why photographers negotiated collaborations through photographs and why artist collaborations chose particular photographic methods. He writes with impressive lucidity and authority. * Charles Green, University of Melbourne, Australia * Palmer's book makes a valuable contribution to discussion about photographic practice now, situating it within a framework of collaboration and social encounter influenced by the writings of Azoulay, that is absolutely timely. He brings his examples of recent practices together in a distinctive way and within a tightly framed argument which makes a strong pitch for fundamentally rethinking the way we think about photography as a medium. Incorporating a broad theoretical overview and closely argued case studies this will be a really useful book for anyone studying the subject at university level. * Joanna Lowry, University of Brighton, UK * By focusing on the surprisingly little-studied area of photographic collaboration, Daniel Palmer gives us a new framework through which to understand a remarkable breadth of photographic practice, both contemporary and historical. Photography & Collaboration addresses a lively and timely set of issues of key importance to artists today - from the ever-increasing relevance of social practices to the seemingly ubiquitous state of networked imagery - and offers fresh insights on canonical histories. * Kate Palmer Albers, University of Arizona, USA * There has always been a collaborative effort and spirit connected to photography. This is particularly true since 1960. In his new book, Photography and Collaboration, Daniel Palmer admirably brings this tradition to light. With insight and skill, he pulls together a diverse and international cadre of photographers and artists who help us see that the study of collaboration does, in fact, augment our study of photography. * James R. Swensen, Brigham Young University, USA *