GENIUS OF PHOTOGRAPHY

GENIUS OF PHOTOGRAPHY Accompanying the first major television history ofthis ever more influential art form, this landmark book explores the keyevents and the key images that have marked the development of photography.At the heart of the book is a quest to understand what makes a truly greatphotograph. What is it that makes a photograph by Nan Goldin or HenriCartier-Bresson stand out among the millions of others taken by all of usevery single day? Why are some photographs elevated to the status of art -even after the event? "The Story of Photography" examines the evolution ofphotography in its wider context: social, political, economic,technological and artistic. It brings a critical perspective and a strongaesthetic sense to the subject, but above all it is primarily a narrativehistory. Beginning with the earliest days of the photograph in the 1840sand ending with an examination of the state of photography today and theeffect that the 'digital revolution' will have, changing not only how welook at a photograph, but what it is in a physical sense. The bookexamines all the different genres of photography from art, news andreportage, landscape and portrait photography. It also tells the greatstories behind many of the world's most iconic photographs and reveals theextraordinary characters - from Margaret Bourke-White to Cindy Sherman andfrom Louis Daguerre to Robert Capa who have made and defined this artform. And it explores the forces and contemporary resonances that havegiven these images their meaning and power.