What Photography Is

<p>In <em>What Photography Is</em> James Elkins examines the strange and alluring power of photography in the same provocative and evocative manner as he explored oil painting in his best-selling <em>What Painting Is</em>. In the course of an extended imaginary dialogue with Roland Barthes's <em>Camera Lucida</em> Elkins argues that photography is also about meaninglessness--its apparently endless capacity to show us things that we do not want or need to see--and also about pain because extremely powerful images can sear permanently into our consciousness. Extensively illustrated with a surprising range of images the book demonstrates that what makes photography uniquely powerful is its ability to express the difficulty--physical psychological emotional and aesthetic--of the act of seeing.</p>