Susan Bright
Art Photography Now
Aperture, 2005
“As all the work in this book testifies, photography is no longer a ‘mortal enemy’ or a ‘humble servant’ to art. It is currently enjoying significant re-evaluation in terms of its profile, acceptance and status.”— Susan Bright
Photography helped shape art in the late twentieth century; in the twenty-first, it has begun to dominate it.Art Photography Now (Aperture, November 2005), is a survey that presents the work of eighty of the most important and best-known art photographers in the world today ––including Tina Barney, Gregory Crewdson, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Nan Goldin, Andreas Gursky, Martin Parr, Cindy Sherman, Joel Sternfeld, Martin Parr, Mario Testino, to name a few. Susan Bright, former curator of the National Portrait Gallery, London, has organized the book into seven sections -- City, Portrait, Document, Object, Landscape, Fashion, and Narrative — each of which explores the diverse subjects, styles, and methods adopted by the artists. Introductions to each section outline the genres and consider why photographers are attracted to certain themes and how issues like memory, time, objectivity, politics, identity, and the everyday are tied to certain approaches.
Each photographer’s work is then presented in sequence, with commentaries by the author highlighting the art’s most important aspects. Quotations from the artists appear alongside to offer valuable insights into the motivation, inspiration, and intentions behind the work.
With an introduction that sets out the historical relationship between art and photography from the early nineteenth century and discusses the art world’s embrace of the medium in recent decades, Art Photography Now is a truly comprehensive guide to the essential aspects of contemporary photography. It is a visual feast and an essential resource for curators, collectors, scholars, practitioners, and anyone who wants a comprehensive, up-to-date exposure to the state of photography today.
Susan Bright is an independent writer, lecturer, and curator. A former curator of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery and director of the Association of Photographers Gallery, both in London, currently she is an associate lecturer in photographic history and theory at the London College of Communication, acting director of the M.A. contemporary art course at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London, and a course leader at Tate Modern. She has curated a variety of photography exhibitionsand has written numerous articles and essays for a number of catalogues, journals and magazines, including Photoworks, Source, Contemporary, Tema Celeste, and Showstudio.
Art Photography Now
Edited by Susan Bright
Aperture
November 2005
9 x 10 ¾ in. (22.8 x 27.3 cm)
224 pages, 250 four-color images
Hardcover with jacket
ISBN 1-931788-91-X
$50.00 U.S.
