2025-11

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“Photographs Objects Histories”: The Material Turn in Image Studies

Photographs Objects Histories, edited by Elizabeth Edwards and Janice Hart, is the foundational text of the "material turn" in photography studies. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) The photograph as a material "object," not just an image; 2) The "object biography" method, which tracks a photo's life history through circulation and use; 3) The archive and museum as "meaning-making machines"; 4) The importance of sensory and bodily handling (touch, smell) in understanding photography as a relational medium.
2025.11.05
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Hito Steyerl’s “The Wretched of the Screen”: A Political Economy of the Platform Age

Hito Steyerl's The Wretched of the Screen is a political economy of the platform image. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) The "poor image," which gains speed and accessibility by losing resolution; 2) The shift from a horizontal to a "vertical gaze" (drones, satellites); 3) "Circulation as production," where tagging and ranking are the political sites; 4) The governance of visibility by algorithms. A key text for critiquing platform capitalism.
2025.11.05
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Douglas Crimp’s “On the Museum’s Ruins”: Institutional Critique and the Postmodern Image

Douglas Crimp's On the Museum's Ruins is a foundational text of institutional critique. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) The museum as the "ruins" of the modernist myth of originality; 2) The "Pictures Generation" (Sherman, Levine) and the use of "appropriation" to deconstruct authorship; 3) How photography, as an "outsider-core," rewrote the museum's grammar; 4) The exhibition as an "argument" rather than a neutral display. Complements Krauss, Sekula, and Tagg.
2025.11.05
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Kaja Silverman’s “The Miracle of Analogy”: Rewriting the Ontology of Photography

Kaja Silverman's The Miracle of Analogy is a major rewriting of photography's ontology. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) Challenging Krauss's "index," she posits photography's essence as "analogy" (resemblance); 2) Decentering the author with the concept of "the world's self-imaging"; 3) Using "latency" (delay) to build an ethics of viewing; 4) Tracking "chains of resemblance" across media. The book reorients photo theory toward phenomenology and attunement.
2025.11.05
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kiji

Lev Manovich’s “The Language of New Media”: The Underlying Grammar of Digital Culture

Lev Manovich's The Language of New Media (2001) is the foundational text for digital culture. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) The five principles of new media (Numerical Representation, Modularity, Automation, Variability, Transcoding); 2) The tension between "database" and "narrative" logic; 3) The "cultural interface" as a designer of perception; 4) The "software-ization" of media, leading to post-photography. A key tool for understanding algorithms and platforms.
2025.11.05
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W. J. T. Mitchell’s “What Do Pictures Want?”: The Lives, Loves, and Agency of Images

W. J. T. Mitchell's What Do Pictures Want? (2005) follows Picture Theory by investigating the "agency" and social life of images. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) The methodological hypothesis of asking what pictures "want" to reveal power; 2) The "idol/totem/fetish" trio to analyze power and "iconoclasm"; 3) The interplay between the material "picture" and the fluid "image"; 4) The concept of "voicing" (who speaks for the image).
2025.11.05
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Susie Linfield’s “The Cruel Radiance”: Defending the Gaze on Political Violence

Susie Linfield's The Cruel Radiance is a defense of the ethical necessity of viewing images of political violence. This analysis breaks down its 4 cores: 1) Arguing against the "anti-photography tradition" that sees images as inherently exploitative; 2) Positing that "learning to see" (with context and facts) is a trained civic capacity; 3) Arguing for a case-by-case ethics rather than a total ban; 4) Defending photojournalism and empathy against cynicism. The book dialogues with Sontag and Azoulay, reframing viewing as a civic duty.
2025.11.05
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Martha Rosler’s “Decoys and Disruptions”: Images and Discourse as Social Intervention

Martha Rosler's Decoys and Disruptions is a workshop for social intervention. This analysis breaks down its 4 cores: 1) Critiquing liberal documentary, arguing for "alliance with others"; 2) Using feminism to deconstruct domesticity, the body, and media (e.g., "Semiotics of the Kitchen"); 3) Reframing the exhibition as a public forum for policy ("If You Lived Here..."); 4) The "politics of editing" (captions, layout). A key text in institutional critique alongside Sekula and Tagg.
2025.11.05
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John Tagg’s “The Burden of Representation”: An Archaeology of Evidence and Governance

John Tagg's The Burden of Representation is an archaeology of the photographic archive. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) A photo's "evidentiary power" is not inherent but is produced by institutional archival procedures (police, medical); 2) "Documentary" is not a neutral record but a tool of "governmentality" (a Foucauldian concept) for classifying and disciplining subjects; 3) How photography (e.g., police files) constructs and fixes social identity; 4) A methodology focused on documents and practices, not masterpieces.
2025.11.05
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Allan Sekula’s “Photography Against the Grain”: The Archive and Politics of Documentary

Allan Sekula's Photography Against the Grain is a key text of critical realism. This analysis breaks down its 4 cores: 1) Reframing "documentary" from aesthetics to political practice and alliance; 2) The "politics of the archive" and how images are used by institutions (capital, labor); 3) Visualizing globalized labor through ports and logistics; 4) The politics of text-image sequencing. A critical toolkit for understanding the archival turn.
2025.11.05
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