Art and Photography

Art and Photography is the first book of its kind to survey the major presence of photography at the centre of artistic practice from the 1960s onwards. On its invention, the photograph was considered a purely mechanical, an artless object that could not be included in the fine arts. Despite its increasing use by the twentieth century's most significant artists, only since the late 1960s have art museums gradually begun to exhibit and acquire the photograph as an artwork. Today photography is the pre-eminent artistic medium for contemporary artists.

Survey David Campany provides a comprehensive historical overview of photography's place in twentieth-century art history.

Works provides an extensive colour plate and duotone image section with extended captions for every artwork. Divided thematically, each chapter explores a different aspect of photography in twentieth-century culture, examining the diverse ways in which artists have explored and pushed boundaries.

Among more than 190 examples of the most significant photographic projects by artists are works by John Baldessari, Lewis Baltz, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Christian Boltanski, Chris Burden, Victor Burgin, Sophie Calle, Elinor Carucci, Chuck Close, James Coleman, John Coplans, Gregory Crewdson, Philip Lorca DiCorcia, William Eggleston, Joan Fontcuberta, Lee Friedlander, Nan Goldin, Andreas Gursky, John Hilliard, Candida Höfer, Roni Horn, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Richard Long, Robert Mapplethorpe, Annette Messager, Joel Meyerowitz, Duane Michals, Boris Mikhailov, Richard Misrach, Gabriel Orozco, Giuseppe Penone, Richard Prince, Gerhard Richter, Martha Rosler, Georges Rousse, Thomas Ruff, Ed Ruscha, Lucas Samaras, Andres Serrano, Cindy Sherman, Stephen Shore, Katharina Sieverding, Lorna Simpson, Thomas Struth, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Larry Sultan, Wolfgang Tillmans, Jeff Wall, Andy Warhol, Gillian Wearing, Boyd Webb, Carrie Mae Weems, William Wegman and Francesca Woodman.

Documents contextualises the Works with original artists' statements and interviews, often reproduced in book form for the first time, plus writings on art and photography by leading critics, writers and theorists of the late twentieth century.

David Campany is a writer and curator, and Reader in Photography at the University of Westminster. His essays have appeared in many books including Cruel and Tender: the real in the Twentieth century photograph (Tate, 2003), John Divola: Three Acts (Aperture, 2006) and Chris Killip: Arbeit (Steidl, 2012). His books include Photography and Cinema (Reaktion Books, 2008), Jeff Wall: Picture for Women (Afterall/MIT Press, 2010) and Walker Evans: the Magazine Work (Steidl, 2012).