Why It Does Not Have To Be In Focus
Why It Does Not Have To Be In Focus
Why It Does Not Have To Be In Focus
Why It Does Not Have To Be In Focus
Why It Does Not Have To Be In Focus

Why It Does Not Have To Be In Focus

£9.99

Modern Photography Explained by Jackie Higgins
Published by Thames and Hudson

An engaging and enlightening reappraisal of contemporary photography that shows that there’s much more to the art of photography than just pointing and clicking

Choosing 100 key photographs – with particular emphasis on the last twenty years – she examines what inspired each photographer in the first place, and traces how the piece was executed. In doing so, she brings to light the layers of meaning and artifice behind these singular works, some of which were initially dismissed out of hand for being blurred, overexposed or ‘badly’ composed.

- Discover why Gillian Wearing’s Self-Portrait at 17 Years Old not the straightforward photobooth snap that it first appears to be.

- Find out what lies behind Hiroshi Sugimoto’s decision to use a 19th-century large-format camera for his work – an apparently perverse choice, given his intention to throw the images it creates out of focus.

- And explore what prompted Richard Prince to begin photographing existing photographs – an act that saw him pilloried by some critics for lazily profiting from other people’s work.

The images in this book play with our expectations of a photograph, our tendency to believe that it is telling us the unadorned truth. Jackie Higgins proves once and for all that the art of photography is much more sophisticated than it at first may seem.

- 224 pp
- 19.8 x 14 cm