The "public" life of photographs /

Although this reviewer cannot agree with all this collection's views of what photography does and is, the essays challenge one to engage in a thorough, invasive examination of the medium's history and the effect of photography on human understanding of what is presented visually--"reproduction" and its many meanings (Walter Benjamin is often referenced). The reader should constantly consider the occasionally suggested, unlimited differences between reality and its photographic references. The issues are many, and discussions of them are intense, informative, suggestible, provocative. The reader's mind is "silently" brought into its own in-depth exploration (beyond what is written) of the many issues: photography as vehicle of family life preservation and reflection (album, postcard); visual media instigation/presentation (publication); artistic use and offering (gallery/museum exhibition and travel, the motives and minds of curators, interpretation, publication, private collection); broad historical representation (library); unending reproduction of individual prints; the effects of exchange between all of these; their effect on memory, on history, on reality. An excellent complement to any history of photography, this collection expands on two centuries of questions/answers about the making and using of photographs. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Carl Chiarenza, University of Rochester