Photography After Conceptual Art

Photography After Conceptual Art presents a series of original chapters that address substantive theoretical, historical, and aesthetic issues raised by past 1960's photography as a mainstream artistic medium, particularly in light of the oft-heard critique of the arts' 'postnedium' condition. Contributions trace photographic art's remarkable transformation from the 'non-aesthetic' uses of the medium associated with various conceptual and post-conceptual practices of the 1960's and 1970's to the large scale pictorial colour images that have dominated the medium since the 1990's. The theoretical and aesthetic implications of this historical metamorphosis are considered from a number of conflicting theoretical perspectives. Among the influential artists discussed are Ed Ruscho, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Douglas Huebler, Mel Bochner, Sherrie Levine, Roni Horn, Thomas Demand, and Jeff Wall, whose work is considered from the perspectives of Martin Heidegger, Theodor Adorno, Gilles Nleuze, Roland Borthes Michael Fried, and several others. Photography After Conceptual Ali offers an insightful and illuminating snapshot of the current state of debate in the realm of photographic art.Diarmuid Costello is Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Warwick and Chair of the British Society of Aesthetics. He coedited (with Dominic Willsdon) The Life and Death of Images: Ethics and Aesthetics (2008), and (with Jonathon Vickery) Art: Key Contemporary Thinkers (2007). 'His articles have appeared in British Journal of Aesthetics, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, aka, Inquiry Rivisto di Estetica, and Angelaki, On Photography is forthcoming.Margaret Iversen is Professor of Art History and Theory, University of Essex. Her books include: Beyond Pleasure: Freud, Lawn, Barthes (2007); Alois Riegl: All History and Theory (1993); Mary Kelly, co-authored with Douglas Crimp and Homi Bhabha (1997); and Chance (2010). Writing Art History, co-authored with Stephen Melville, is forthcoming.Iversen and Costello are also CoDirectors of the AHRC research protect 'Aesthetics after Photography'.
Photography After Conceptual Art presents a series of original essays that address substantive theoretical, historical, and aesthetic issues raised by post-1960s photography as a mainstream artistic medium Selected by Choice as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2011Appeals to people interested in artist's use of photography and in contemporary art Tracks the efflorescence of photography as one of the most important mediums for contemporary art Explores the relation between recent art, theory and aesthetics, for which photography serves as an important test case Includes a number of the essays with previously unpublished photographs Artists discussed include Ed Ruscha, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Douglas Huebler, Mel Bochner, Sherrie Levine, Roni Horn, Thomas Demand, and Jeff Wall