The Media of Photography

Two events in particular occasion this volume on the philosophy of photography: the blurring of boundaries that many took to demarcate photographic technology and practices from other representational and artistic technologies and the invention of digital photography. The purpose of this volume is not to revive older questions by asking what, if anything, still distinguishes photography in the light of these developments, but to consider sundry questions about the materials and tools—or media—of photography from a variety of perspectives.

• critically examines classic and influential arguments in philosophy of photography
• addresses recent trends in photographic art, such as conceptualism and appropriation
• highlights philosophically neglected elements of photographic art, such as performativity and self-portraiture
• reexamines the role of photographic media in photographic art practices
• offers new perspectives of the impact of digital technologies on photography
• explores the relationship between photographic art and photography in other arts (comics and music) and in science
• brings a range of philosophical methodologies and traditions into dialogue
• incorporates extended discussions of the work of important photographers and artists who use photography (e.g. Friedlander, Gursky, Lawlor)
• illustrates philosophical points with reproductions, many of them not widely known
• closely connects philosophical theory to the details of photographic practice
• offers original and novel theories of the aesthetic, artistic, and epistemic values of photographs