The Engine of Visualization

the long version

In the first philosophical book wholly about photography, Patrick Maynard dispels some basic, persistent confusions by treating photography as a technology - a way to enhance and filter human power. Once photography is understood as a kind of technology, Maynard argues, insights about technology may be applied to provide the general perspective on photography that has been missing. Photography extends our human ability to produce images, which are understood as surface markings - here induced by light. Through an approach to photography that is both analytic and consistently sensitive to photo history, Maynard places photography among modern imaging technologies, such as those familiar in medicine, and addresses some provocative questions. Technologies amplify but they also suppress. What does photography suppress? How should we think about depictive fidelity? What problems do the new digital technologies bring in their wake? What accounts for the persistent ambivalence regarding photographic art? Although Maynard's particular focus is photography, much of his discussion illuminates issues concerning other technologies and other kinds of images.