Review by Choice Review
True to its title, this book presents key concepts and debates in contemporary photography. Miller (Univ. of Brighton, UK) divides the 15 chapters into 5 parts, opening each part with an overview of related concepts she then debates in detail over the ensuing three chapters. Miller's examples feature both established and emerging photographers, but she purposely highlights less-known artists to prevent more familiar names from overshadowing the concepts presented. The book's breadth of coverage, the myriad examples referenced, and its framing of art photography against various background theories (e.g., gender philosopher Judith Butler) are its strengths--it is solidly researched and heavily referenced. However, Miller includes fewer than 50 illustrations, all black-and-white and on the small side, even when color is the focus of the discussion (for example, Richard Mosse's The Devil You Know). The book will not be accessible to casual readers, because the unnecessarily cerebral writing in places (e.g., in a discussion of psychoanalyst Lacan and his "objet a") makes for laborious reading. Readers should also look at The Photography Cultures Reader: Representation, Agency, and Identity, ed. by Liz Wells (2019). Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. --Lucy C. Duhon, The University of Toledo
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
