Collaboration

A Potential History of Photography

Ariella Azoulay, Wendy Ewald, Susan Meiselas , Leigh Raiford

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English

Thames & Hudson
20 January 2024

Photography & photographs

A new, revolutionary history of photography from a stellar team of writers and thinkers that challenges all existing narratives by focusing on the complex collaborations between photographer and subject.

Led by five of the great thinkers and practitioners in photography, and including texts by over 100 writers, critics and academics, this groundbreaking publication presents a potential history of photography explored through the lens of collaboration, challenging the dominant narratives around photographic history and authorship. With more than 1,000 photographs, it breaks apart photography's 'single creator' tradition by bringing to light tangible traces of collaboration - the various relationships, exchanges and interactions that occur between all participants in the making of any photograph.

This collaboration takes different forms, including coercion and cooperation, friendship and exploitation, and expresses shared interests as well as competition, rivalry or antagonistic partnership. The conditions of collaboration are explored through 100 photography 'projects', divided into eight thematic chapters including 'The Photographed Subject', 'The Author' and 'Potentializing Violence'. The result of years of research, Collaboration addresses key issues of gender, race and societal hierarchies and divisions and their role in forging identity and conformity.

The photographs from each project are presented non-hierarchically alongside quotes, testimonies, and short texts by guest contributors. These networks of texts and images offer perspectives on a vast array of photographic themes, from Araki's portraits of women to archival files from the Spanish Civil War. Each chapter is introduced by the editors, who provide the keys to understanding and decoding the complex politics of seeing.

By: Ariella Azoulay, Wendy Ewald, Susan Meiselas, Leigh Raiford, Laura Wexler
Imprint: Thames & Hudson
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 285mm, Width: 215mm,
Weight: 1.640kg
ISBN: 9780500545331
ISBN 10: 0500545332
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 20 January 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Ariella Azoulay is a Professor of Modern Culture and Media and Comparative Literature at Brown University. Wendy Ewald is a photographer who has collaborated on art projects with children, families, women and teachers for fifty years. She has published twelve books. Susan Meiselas is a documentary photographer and member of Magnum Photos since 1976. Leigh Raiford is an Associate Professor of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Laura Wexler is a Professor of American Studies, Film & Media Studies and Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies at Yale University.

Reviews for Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography

Well-designed [and] lavishly illustrated... Highly recommended.-- ""Choice"" A book that looks at photography using an expanded angle...to use as a challenge to your ideas of what photography is and how it is being made... The breadth and richness of the material covered provides incredible rewards, in particular since the reach is global. If you're only familiar with your standard Western photography, your eyes will be opened to a lot of other photography (and thinking)... An absolutely invaluable and essential book that, ideally, will find its way not only into the studios of photographers but especially into the classrooms of photography schools. From now on, anyone studying to get a masters will have no excuse any longer for not knowing that photography's standard model of authorship is flawed. The most exciting aspect of the book is the fact that it points out ways forward... Highly recommended.-- ""Conscientious Photography Magazine"" A captivating and essential resource.-- ""Hyperallergic"" An invigorating alternative to traditional ways of understanding the history of photography.-- ""Library Journal"" [An] excellent challenge to the 'single creator' view of photography... The collection also astutely illustrates how photography--even when ostensibly deployed to oppress--can subtly critique power structures and dominant cultural narratives... Enriched by the volume's incisive social commentary, these striking images leave a mark.-- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)""