Inadvertent Images – A History of Photographic Apparitions - Hardcover

Geimer, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 022647187X ISBN 13: 9780226471877

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2018

Synopsis

As an artistic medium, photography is uniquely subject to accidents, or disruptions, that can occur in the making of an artwork. Though rarely considered seriously, those accidents can offer fascinating insights about the nature of the medium and how it works. With Inadvertent Images, Peter Geimer explores all kinds of photographic irritation from throughout the history of the medium, as well as accidental images that occur through photo-like means, such as the image of Christ on the Shroud of Turin, brought into high resolution through photography. Geimer's investigations complement the history of photographic images by cataloging a corresponding history of their symptoms, their precarious visibility, and the disruptions threatened by image noise. Interwoven with the familiar history of photography is a secret history of photographic artifacts, spots, and hazes that historians have typically dismissed as "spurious phenomena," "parasites," or "enemies of the photographer." With such photographs, it is virtually impossible to tell where a "picture" has been disrupted--where the representation ends and the image noise begins. We must, Geimer argues, seek to keep both in sight: the technical making and the necessary unpredictability of what is made, the intentional and the accidental aspects, representation and its potential disruption.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Geimer is a professor of art history at Freie Universität Berlin.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 022647187X
• ISBN 13: 9780226471877
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288