Basic Critical Theory for Photographers

2 John Szarkowski, The Photographer’s Eye and Stephen Shore, The Nature of Photographs

Both Szarkowski and Shore attempt to give what they feel are the defining characteristics of photographs. Szarkowski’s book is based on the exhibition of the same title that he curated in 1966. Shore’s book was published in 1998 and can be seen as being in the same tradition as Szarkowski’s book. There is a sense in which whatever else a photograph is, it is first of all what they say it is, although some would argue that this approach is too limiting.

Both of these books are very well illustrated, and should be referred to in order to fully appreciate their authors’ arguments. Note that the illustrations used in this book to illustrate the Szarkowski and Shore ...