Post Photography: The Artsits With A Camera - Robert Shore

Conversations about the veracity/reliability of photography as a witness are as old as photography itself. True, the ease with which an image may be transformed beyond recognition has never been greater but that simply generates more images of diminishing importance. The only real question about photography which matters is one of intention: the "truth" of an image can only be assessed on that basis. When artists chose to use "recorded images" in their practice, technically all bets are off. Indeed the issue of technique (which regularly obscures or even displaces intention in the realms of pure photography) becomes secondary, even irrelevant. This collection of works by 53 artists is broad in its reach, including digital, optical and physical manipulations of subject, technique and sometimes even the finished artifacts themselves. As a survey of current practice Post Photography is invaluable, as a provocation to debating the continuing role of image making and transmission it is very welcome. The author chooses to omit several better know artist photographers such as Gursky, Ruff, Crewdson and Nakano in favor of lesser known (though no less interesting) practitioners. Given the books scope and the sheer range of approaches covered this is not a problem. Rather Post Photography can be seen as an in depth adjunct to the more ephemeral dialog on photography which exists at the junction of general museum shows and curated surveys.