On its invention, the photograph was considered a purely mechanical, 'artless' object which could not belong among the fine arts. Despite its increasing use by the century's most significant artists, only since the late 1960s have art museums gradually begun to exhibit and acquire the photograph as an artwork. Today, though it took the whole of the last century for it to acquire its status, photography is art's pre-eminent medium. Art And Photography is the first book of its kind to survey the major presence of photography in artistic practice from the 1960s onwards. It is an authoritative and wide ranging survey, including texts by theorists Jean Baudrillard and Roland Barthes, and artists Victor Burgin and Jeff Wall. International artists of the last four decades are each represented in the book by a significant work or series, accompanied by a lucid explanatory text. Art And Photography is an essential reference work for students, professionals and all readers interested in photography and media.
