Art and Photography

This oversize book (10.25x11.25<">) is not a restful read. There's visual and intellectual stimulation on every page: images from the fulminating late 1960s to the present, and text and captions in a variety of typefaces (some so big, it hurts). In all, this volume presents 190 photos by 160 significant international artists photographers who have explored and pushed the boundaries of the medium (and of our sensibilities). The images are accompanied by artist statements and interviews as well as reflections on photography by dozens of thinkers, including Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, Clement Greenberg, Walter Benjamin, Andre Malraux, among others. Arrangement is chronological within some designated themes (e.g. memories, the urban and the everyday, the studio image). Providing the preface and the introductory survey material is editor David Campany, a writer and an artist himself who lectures in the history and theory of photography at Surrey Institute of Art and Design, Farnham, England. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)