Sonia/gs2b

Annotated bibliography with 5 key texts (synopsis)

• Zylinska, J., 2017. Nonhuman Photography. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England.
  

Nonhuman Photography is a theoretical text which looks at three types of "nonhuman" photography, namely the following:—

1. Photographs not of the human i.e. photographs devoid of the human presence in their subject matter e.g. landscape, architecture, ruin porn
   
2. Photographs not by the human i.e. photographs or impressions created without the human as programmer of the apparatus e.g. traffic control cameras, Google street car camera, fossils
   
3. Photographs not for the human i.e. photographs not made for human consumption e.g. AI, neural networks, machine learning, QR codes
   

In my view Zylinska is an important critical voice placing photographic practice within the context of modern society encouraging image creators to consider what it means to engage with photographic media and create a photograph today.

• Cotton, C., 2007. The Photograph as Contemporary Art, Reprinted. ed, Thames & Hudson world of art. Thames & Hudson, London.
  

The Photograph as Contemporary Art features reproductions of works by contemporary photographic artists categorised and defined by their approach to subject matter, technique and working methods employed by the artists. Each image is accompanied by a description and critical analysis of the artist and/or their featured work. As a whole the publication serves as a document which gives a condensed overview of contemporary photographic practices.

• McKenzie, J., 2014. Light + Photomedia: A New History and Future of the Photographic Image, The international library of visual culture. Tauris, London.
  

Light + Photomedia proposes an alternative to the term photography and instead defines all media that incorporate light in some way as light-space-time structures and more broadly as photomedia. McKenzie cites earlier preeminent books on the subject such as Vilém Flusser's Towards a Philosophy of Photography and...

• Campany, D. (Ed.), 2007. The Cinematic, Documents of Contemporary Art. Whitechapel [u.a.], London.

A compilation of essays which explore the defining characteristics of the moving image and cinema, especially in comparison to the photographic still image. The essays themselves are diverse ranging from academic essays, interviews with filmmakers and photographic artists, and excerpts from prominent books on the subject for example. Topics which feature prominently include that of duration and time, how moving images are "read" differently to still images and the broader implications of choices made by creators.

• Solnit, R. 2005. A Field Guide to Getting Lost. Canongate Books Ltd, 2005.
  

Other possible texts:—

• Photography is Magic - Charlotte Cotton (yet to read)
• Wanderlust - Rebecca Solnit
• Take Place: Photography and Place from Multiple Perspectives - Helen Westgeest (ed.) (yet to read)