Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography - Hardcover

Azoulay, Ariella; Ewald, Wendy; Meiselas, Susan; Raiford, Leigh; Wexler, Laura

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0500545332 ISBN 13: 9780500545331

Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 2023

Synopsis

A new, revolutionary history of photography from a stellar team of writers and thinkers that challenges all existing narratives by focusing on the complex collaborations between photographer and subject

About this title

About the Author

Ariella Azoulay is a Professor of Modern Culture and Media and Comparative Literature at Brown University. Wendy Ewald is a photographer who has collaborated on art projects with children, families, women and teachers for fifty years. She has published twelve books. Susan Meiselas is a documentary photographer and member of Magnum Photos since 1976. Leigh Raiford is an Associate Professor of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Laura Wexler is a Professor of American Studies, Film & Media Studies and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at Yale University.

From the Back Cover

A new, revolutionary history of photography from a stellar team of writers and thinkers that challenges all existing narratives by focusing on the complex collaborations between photographer and subject.

Led by five of the great thinkers and practitioners in photography, and including texts by over 100 writers, critics and academics, this groundbreaking publication presents a potential history of photography explored through the lens of collaboration, challenging the dominant narratives around photographic history and authorship. With more than 1,000 photographs, it breaks apart photography’s ‘single creator’ tradition by bringing to light tangible traces of collaboration – the various relationships, exchanges and interactions that occur between all participants in the making of any photograph.

This collaboration takes different forms, including coercion and cooperation, friendship and exploitation, and expresses shared interests as well as competition, rivalry or antagonistic partnership. The conditions of collaboration are explored through 100 photography ‘projects’, divided into eight thematic chapters including ‘The Photographed Subject’, ‘The Author’ and ‘Potentializing Violence’. The result of years of research, Collaboration addresses key issues of gender, race and societal hierarchies and divisions and their role in forging identity and conformity.

The photographs from each project are presented non-hierarchically alongside quotes, testimonies, and short texts by guest contributors. These networks of texts and images offer perspectives on a vast array of photographic themes, from Araki’s portraits of women to archival files from the Spanish Civil War. Each chapter is introduced by the editors, who provide the keys to understanding and decoding the complex politics of seeing.

Edition details

• Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0500545332
• ISBN 13: 9780500545331
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288