Perception and Imaging

Taking photographs has become easier over the years, but taking photographs that have impact and lasting power has not. Such images require heart, and some understanding of the factors that make an image noteworthy. Perception and Imaging, Second Edition will lead you into areas and concepts that will spark your intellectual curiosity and assist you in your image making. What is known about vision and the visual process is overwhelming; what is directly applicable to pictures is not. Perception and Imaging, Second Edition is the visual artist's gateway to the principles that drive visual perception.

Perception and Imaging, Second Edition invites you to explore the domain of the subconscious and collective unconscious, and the role subliminals, secondary images, and archetypes play; the role of memory and association, and why ambiguity and illusion are an important components;
why soft and hard contours (edges) are critical to sharpness, contrast, color, and depth perception; and how visual rhetoric has been used to give impact to photographs, advertisements, posters, promotional material, and motion pictures. Perception and Imaging, Second Edition is for anyone and everyone involved with visual images and has a desire to better understand them.

Richard Zakia is a 1956 graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Some of his classmates at the time were Carl Chiarenza, Peter Bunnell, Bruce Davidson, Ken Josephson, Pete Turner and Jerry Uelsmann. Minor White was a member of the faculty and Beaumont Newhall was Adjunct. It was a great and enriching mix. After graduation he was employed as a photographic engineer in the Color Technology Division of Eastman Kodak. During the Sputnik era he decided teaching was his vocation and accepted a position with RIT where he served for 34 years. For a time he was Director of Instructional Research and Development and Chair of the Fine Art Photography Department and graduate program in Imaging Arts. He is a recipient of the Eisenhart Outstanding Teaching Award. Zakia has authored and co-authored thirteen books on photography and perception. He is also the co-editor with Dr. Leslie Stroebel of the third edition (1993) of The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography and a contributor to the fourth edition (2007). His most recent book is Teaching Photography with Dr. Glen Rand.
Richard Zakia is a 1956 graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Some of his classmates at the time were Carl Chiarenza, Peter Bunnell, Bruce Davidson, Ken Josephson, Pete Turner and Jerry Uelsmann. Minor White was a member of the faculty and Beaumont Newhall was Adjunct. It was a great and enriching mix. After graduation he was employed as a photographic engineer in the Color Technology Division of Eastman Kodak. During the Sputnik era he decided teaching was his vocation and accepted a position with RIT where he served for 34 years. For a time he was Director of Instructional Research and Development and Chair of the Fine Art Photography Department and graduate program in Imaging Arts. He is a recipient of the Eisenhart Outstanding Teaching Award. Zakia has authored and co-authored thirteen books on photography and perception. He is also the co-editor with Dr. Leslie Stroebel of the third edition (1993) of The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography and a contributor to the fourth edition (2007). His most recent book is Teaching Photography with Dr. Glen Rand.