Looking at Photographs (Art Essentials)

New in the Art Essentials series, an introductory guide to the art of looking at and engaging with photography.

Everything counts in a good photograph, even down to the smallest details. This introductory guide is structured to help you develop new and more in-depth ways of looking at images, whether as a viewer or practitioner – or just out snapping with your smartphone.

Looking at Photographs outlines key approaches to help us understand why a photograph captures our attention and moves us. Across seven chapters, visual culture expert Laurent Jullier discusses themes and concepts that are essential to understanding the medium, including: photography as a reflection of reality; manipulation and defamiliarization; focus, perspective and space; time and the moment; identity, portraits and selfies; the power of images.

With examples drawn from across the world and throughout the history of photography, from Louis Daguerre to Julia Margaret Cameron, László Moholy-Nagy, Dorothea Lange, Andreas Gursky, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Dayanita Singh, Aïda Muluneh and many others, as well as a helpful glossary of terms, this guide is not just about learning ‘how to read’ photographs, it is about knowing how to ask the right questions when you look at images.