The Photograph

How do we read a photograph? Graham Clarke gives a clear and incisive account of the photograph's historical development from Joseph Nicphore Nipce's early `heliograph' to the classic compositions of Cartier-Bresson and Alfred Steiglitz, to the striking post-modern strategies of Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, and Victor Burgin. This book is a ground-breaking examination of the main subject areas - landscape, the city, portraiture, the body, and reportage - with detailed analysis of exemplary images in terms of their cultural and ideological contexts.