Towards a Philosophy of Photography
Vilém FlusserShows how the transformation of textual into visual culture (from the linearity of history into the two-dimensionality of magic) and of industrial into post-industrial society (from work into leisure) went hand in hand, and how photography allows us to read and interpret these changes with particular clarity.
With an introduction by Hubertus von Amelunxen
Media philosopher Vilém Flusser proposed a revolutionary new way of thinking about photography. An analysis of the medium in terms of aesthetics, science and politics provided him with new ways of understanding both the cultural crises of the past and the new social forms nascent within them. Flusser showed how the transformation of textual into visual culture (from the linearity of history into the two-dimensionality of magic) and of industrial into post-industrial society (from work into leisure) went hand in hand, and how photography allows us to read and interpret these changes with particular clarity.
Shows how the transformation of textual into visual culture (from the linearity of history into the two-dimensionality of magic) and of industrial into post-industrial society (from work into leisure) went hand in hand, and how photography allows us to read and interpret these changes with particular clarity.
With an introduction by Hubertus von Amelunxen
Media philosopher Vilém Flusser proposed a revolutionary new way of thinking about photography. An analysis of the medium in terms of aesthetics, science and politics provided him with new ways of understanding both the cultural crises of the past and the new social forms nascent within them. Flusser showed how the transformation of textual into visual culture (from the linearity of history into the two-dimensionality of magic) and of industrial into post-industrial society (from work into leisure) went hand in hand, and how photography allows us to read and interpret these changes with particular clarity.
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A relatively little-known but significant text.
'Lindsay Smith, The Years Work in Critical and Cultural Studies
Introductory Note
The Image
The Technical Image
The Apparatus
The Gesture of Photography
The Photograph
The Distribution of Photographs
The Reception of Photographs
The Photographic Universe
Why a Philosophy of Photography is Necessary
Lesson of Basic Concepts
Afterword, Hubertus von Amelunxen
Vilem Flusser was born in Prague in 1920. After emigrating to Brazil and then to France, he embarked on an influential career as a lecturer and writer on language, design and communication. He died in 1991.
Also available from Reaktion by Vilem Flusser is The Shape of Things: A Philosophy of Design.
