Emphasizing the understanding of images and their influences on how they affect our attitudes, beliefs, and actions, this fully updated sixth edition offers consequential ways of looking at images from the perspectives of photographers, critics, theoreticians, historians, curators, and editors. It invites informed conversations about meanings and implications of images, providing multiple and sometimes conflicting answers to questions such as: What are photographs? Should they be called art? Are they ethical? What are their implications for self, society, and the world? From showing how critics verbalize what they see in images and how they persuade us to see similarly, to dealing with what different photographs might mean, the book posits that some interpretations are better than others and explains how to deliberate among competing interpretations. It looks at how the worth of photographs is judged aesthetically and socially, offering samples and practical considerations for both studio critiques for artists and professional criticism for public audiences. This book is a clear and accessible guide for students of art history, photography and criticism, as well as anyone interested in carefully looking at and talking about photographs and their effects on the world in which we live.

This brief text is designed to help both beginning and advanced students of photography better develop and articulate thoughtful criticism. Organized around the major activities of criticism (describing, interpreting, evaluating, and theorizing), "Criticizing Photographs" provides a clear framework and vocabulary for students' critical skill development. The fourth edition includes new black and white and color images, updated commentary, a completely revised chapter on theory that offers a broad discussion of digital images, and an expanded chapter eight on studio critiques and writing about photographs, plus examples of student writing and critique. .

It is my hope that through this book I can share with readers the excitement I feel in looking at sculpture all over the world. This is a general book on how to appreciate sculpture, not a lesson on any particular period or school or artist.

Susie Linfield addresses the issue of whether photographs depicting past scenes of violence & cruelty are voyeuristic, arguing that if we do not look & understand that we are seeing at people, rather than depersonalised acts of inhumanity, our hopes of curbing political violence today are probably limited.

In A Short History of Photography Criticism; or, Why Do Photography Critics Hate Photography?, Susie Linfield contends that by looking at images of political violence and learning to see the people in them, we engage in an ethically and politically necessary act that connects us to our modern history of violence. For many years, Linfield’s acute analysis of photographs—from events as wide-ranging as the Holocaust, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and recent acts of terrorism—has explored a complex connection between the practices of photojournalism and the rise of human rights ideals. By asking how photography should respond to the darker shadows of modern life, Linfield insists on the continuing moral relevance of photojournalism, while urging us not to avert our eyes from what James Agee once labeled “the cruel radiance of what is.”

History of art criticism - Describing and interpreting art - Judging art - Writing and talking about art - Theory and art criticism.

Each of the eight chapters takes a period of up to forty years and examines the medium through the lenses of art, science, social science, travel, war, fashion, the mass media and individual practitioners.-Back Cover.

With both training and preparation, a street photographer needs to make rapid decisions; there may only be a fraction of a second to immortalize a moment in time that has never happened before and will never happen again. This is where Street Photography: Creative Vision Behind the Lens comes in. Follow Valérie Jardin on an inspiring photo walk around the world. After an overview of the practical and technical aspects of street photography, Valérie takes you along on a personal photographic journey as she hits the streets of her favorite urban haunts. She shows you the art of storytelling through her photographs, from envisioning the image to actually capturing it in the camera. Learn about the technical and compositional choices she makes and the thought process that spurred the click of the shutter. Perfect for both the new photographer excited to capture the world around them and for the experienced street photographer wishing to improve their techniques and images, Street Photography requires no special equipment, just a passion for seeing and capturing the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Why is that art? Why is it in an art museum? Who says it's art? Why is it good? Why Is That Art?, Third Edition, introduces students to theories of art through the presentation of contemporary works that include abstract and representational painting, animated film, monumental sculpture, performance art, photographs, relational art, and video installations. Ideal for courses in aesthetics, art theory, art criticism, and the philosophy of art, this unique book provides students with a newfound appreciation for contemporary art, scholarship, and reasoned argumentation.