A roster of prominent artists, curators, and scholars offers a new,
entirely contemporary approach to our understanding of photography and
media
Focusing on the Art Institute of Chicago's deep and varied collection of
photographs, books and other printed matter, installation art,
photobooks, albums, and time-based media, this ambitious, wide-ranging
volume features short essays by prominent artists, curators, university
professors, and independent scholars that explore topics essential to
understanding photography and media today. The essays, organized around
themes ranging from the expected to the esoteric, are paired with key
objects from the collection in order to address issues of aesthetics,
history, philosophy, power relations, production, and reception. More
than 400 high-quality reproductions amplify the authors' arguments and
suggest additional dialogues across conventional divisions of
chronology, genre, geography, and technology. An introductory essay by
Matthew S. Witkovsky traces the museum's history of acquisitions and how
the evolution of the museum's collection reflects broader changes in the
critical reception of the field of photography and media.
Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago
