Review by Choice Review
In a surprisingly fluid narrative, Saltzman (Bryn Mawr College) richly observes, through an idiosyncratic analysis of historic and contemporary images, the changing role of photography in the digital age as it moves from documentary source to aesthetic object. She acknowledges how stubbornly arresting the photographic image remains as a vessel for memory, object-hood, evidence, and identity, despite technologies' continuous attempts to unmoor and destabilize the medium. No matter how obsolete the photograph might become, it remains chained to fundamental questions of the medium: what is the original, what is the copy, what is fake, and what is real. Gliding through a breathtaking range of examples in film, photography, literature, and the graphic novel that resist singular interpretations, Saltzman probes her fascination with photography through unexpected pairings from seemingly unrelated works like Blade Runner, The Return of Martin Guerre, and Austerlitz, and artists such as Gregory Crewdson, Cindy Sherman, An-My Lê, and Gillian Wearing, among others. While doing so, she provides a stimulating conceptual journey to reimagine the lasting power of the image while celebrating the fictions photography has always embraced. Saltzman expands and elaborates on sources and ideas in extensive footnotes, and includes bibliographic references. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, undergraduate students, and above. --Judy Natal, Columbia College Chicago
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
