Why It Does Not Have To Be In Focus: Modern Photography Explained

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Why It Does Not Have To Be In Focus: Modern Photography Explained
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Jackie Higgins
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:224
Dimensions(mm): Height 198,Width 140
Category/GenrePhotography and photographs
ISBN/Barcode 9780500290958
ClassificationsDewey:770.905
Audience
General
Illustrations 100 Illustrations, color

Publishing Details

Publisher Thames & Hudson Ltd
Imprint Thames & Hudson Ltd
Publication Date 16 September 2013
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Why take a self-portrait but obscure your face with a lightbulb (Lee Friedlander, Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 1968)? Or deliberately underexpose an image (Vera Lutter, Battersea Power Station, XI: July 13, 2004)? And why photograph a ceiling (William Eggleston, Untitled (Greenwood, Mississippi, 1973)? In Why It Does Not Have To Be In Focus, Jackie Higgins offers a lively, informed defence of modern photography. Choosing 100 key photographs - with particular emphasis on the last twenty years - she examines what inspired each photographer in the first place, and traces how the piece was executed. In doing so, she brings to light the layers of meaning and artifice behind these singular works, some of which were initially dismissed out of hand for being blurred, overexposed or 'badly' composed. - Discover why Gillian Wearing's Self-Portrait at 17 Years Old not the straightforward photobooth snap that it first appears to be. - Find out what lies behind Hiroshi Sugimoto's decision to use a 19th-century large-format camera for his work - an apparently perverse choice, given his intention to throw the images it creates out of focus. - And explore what prompted Richard Prince to begin photographing existing photographs - an act that saw him pilloried by some critics for lazily profiting from other people's work. The often controversial images in this book play with our expectations of a photograph, our tendency to believe that it is telling us the unadorned truth. Jackie Higgins proves once and for all that the art of photography is much more sophisticated than it at first may seem.

Author Biography

Jackie Higgins is a writer, journalist and filmmaker whose work embraces a range of subjects. She was a contributing writer to Photography: The Whole Story, also published by Thames & Hudson.

Reviews

'A great book - inventive, and persuasively argued' - Amateur Photographer 'If you're after a pocket primer in contemporary art photography, 'Why It Does Not Have to Be In Focus' offers an incisive starting point' - Daily Telegraph