Photography: Two Centuries of History and Images

The great story of world photography, from its origins to the present day

Photography has been one of the key languages of modernity and with the advent of the digital revolution, it has also established itself as the most used medium in everyday private and public communication. Photography is also one of the arts that have marked the 19th and 20th centuries – despite the resistance of academic milieus, reluctant to accept a machine-made form of art –, and during the early years of the 21st century it has taken on an increasingly central role in the field of global contemporary creativity within all socio-political and cultural systems.

This book illustrates the captivating adventure of world photography from its origins to the present day and with its accessible and exact narrative style it speaks to experts, amateurs, and photography enthusiasts alike. Setting off from this medium’s pioneers and early protagonists, this book traces the spread of photography in all ambits (scientific, forensic and artistic), the development of portraiture, the advent of early 18th-century avantgardes, the use of photography as record, reportage, and propaganda, its contribution to pop and conceptual art, the steps towards its institutionalisation and, lastly, its most recent developments, from staged photography to new millennium post-photography.

Three high-impact visual atlases (on single and double pages) set the pace of this volume’s fascinating historic overview, set among the sixteen chapters of the author’s historic reconstruction. The publication also includes sixteen sections dedicated to specific technical aspects plus a comprehensive bibliography.

About the Author:

Walter Guadagnini, director of CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia in Turin, teaches History of Photography at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna. Head of the Galleria Civica in Modena for ten years, he is currently artistic director of the Festival Fotografia Europea in Reggio Emilia and has curated exhibitions in international museums and institutions. Since 2006 he has been in charge of the photography section of “Il Giornale dell’Arte”, and has conceptualized and edited the four volumes of Photography. A History 1839–Now (Skira) with contributions from leading international historians and critics of photography.