How do scholars use photography in their research? What can they learn from photographs? What can we understand from them about our relationship with the photographs that we make and those that we encounter almost everywhere we go?
Edited by Dr Gil Pasternak from the Photographic History Research Centre at De Montfort University (UK), The Handbook of Photography Studies has now been published by Bloomsbury, featuring and discussing work by some of the most influential photography scholars of our generation in 28 chapters and 6 contextualizing essays.
A state-of-the-art overview of the field, The Handbook of Photography Studies examines the thematic interests, dynamic research methodologies and multiple scholarly directions of this exciting area. It is a source of well-informed, analytical and reflective discussions of all the main subjects that photography scholars have been concerned with, as well as a rigorous study of the field’s persistent expansion at a time when digital technology regularly boosts our exposure to new and historical photographs alike.
Featuring the work of international experts, and offering diverse examples, insights and discussions of the field’s rich historiography, the Handbook provides critical guidance to the most recent research in photography studies. Split into five core parts, each with an introductory text that gives historical contextualization and scholarly orientation, this volume:
- analyzes the field’s histories, theories and research strategies;
- discusses photography in academic disciplinary and interdisciplinary contexts;
- draws out the main concerns of photographic scholarship;
- interrogates photography’s cultural and geopolitical influences; and
- examines photography’s multiple uses and continued changing faces.
A systematic synopsis of the subject, this volume will be an invaluable resource for photography researchers and students from all disciplinary backgrounds in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
‘This book is a most useful contribution to the study of photography, with many excellent contributions. Chapters are much more substantial than is usual with works of this type, allowing authors to explore their topics in some depth and explore a range of approaches. Pasternak has done a wonderful job.’ Steve Edwards, Professor of History and Theory of Photography, Co-Director of the History and Theory of Photography Research Centre, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
‘This is a book designed for twenty-first-century students, one that will prepare them to ask well-informed, timely questions about the medium’s histories and historiography.’ Tanya Sheehan, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Art, Colby College, USA
Gil Pasternak is Reader in Social and Political Photographic Cultures in the Photographic History Research Centre (PHRC) at De Montfort University (UK). A member of the advisory board for the journals Photography & Culture and Jewish Film & New Media, earlier in life he worked as photojournalist, photography archivist and fine art photographer, and in 2016 he was consultant for the BBC film Smile! The Nation’s Family Album (2017).
Chapter contributors:
Marta Braun, Douglas Nickel, Melissa Miles, Costanza Caraffa, Jae Emerling, Luc Pauwels, Ben Burbridge, Daniel Rubinstein, Elizabeth Edwards, Christina Riggs, Gil Pasternak, Jennifer Tucker, Paul Frosh, Sarah Parsons, Annebella Pollen, Martin Hand, Jane Lydon, Stephen Sheehi, Oliver Moore, Eva Pluhařová-Grigienė, Darren Newbury, Louis Kaplan, Margaret Denny, Thierry Gervais, Susan A. Crane, Joan M. Schwartz, Martha Langford, and David M. Frohlich.
Visit the Handbook’s webpage to find out more about its aims, aspirations, and content: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-handbook-of-photography-studies-9781474242219/
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