Photography Today

A fully illustrated major new survey of contemporary photography

A lively and accessible survey of photography as art since the 1960s, exploring how, in the hands of some of the world’s greatest photographic artists, it has developed into a respected and versatile artistic medium.

This major new survey of contemporary photography considers the work of 80-100 photographers through eleven thematic chapters on subjects such as street photography, portraiture, landscape photography and documentary. It traces the development of photography as an art form in each of these genres individually and also looks at the ties and links between them. What is revealed is a complex story with numerous tangents.

Mark Durden’s narrative, combined with rich illustrative content and an easily accessible design, guides a clear path through this story, showcasing the work of great individual photographers while also being able to place this into the larger narrative of the medium’s development.

Editorial Reviews

07/21/2014
In this utterly absorbing volume, Durden (Dorothea Lange) examines the impact of over 100 photographers who have risen to prominence since the 1960s. Artfully divided into 11 chapters–covering topics including the rise of copying and appropriation, faces and masks, color photography, street photography, landscapes, atrocities, the body, documentary, and the self–each chapter provides insight into how these photographers fit into a larger whole. The final chapter, „Photography Tomorrow,“ deals with the death of film and the mass proliferation of digital representation, a phenomenon beautifully represented in Kessels’s „24 Hrs in Photos,“ in which the photographer filled a gallery with 350,000 photos uploaded to Flickr in a 24-hour period. All major artists and movements are represented, from Arbus and Winogrand, to Mann, Struth, Calle, and Gursky (along with many lesser-known photographers), though the omission of Alec Soth and John Gossage in such a comprehensive book is surprising. Durden’s considerable research can be seen in the biographies and the book’s index. With precise and accessible prose, and stunning design, this volume masterfully surveys the last half-century of this art form. 350 color, 150 b&w illus. (May)
– Publishers Weekly

„Deft cross-referencing, only possible by a deep knowledge of the subject, is typical of the book as a whole… Durden employs a poetic approach to writing often, which gives the book a lightness, preventing it from becoming turgid, dull, or unnecessarily academic.“-British Journal of Photography
– From the Publisher