Stop Reading! Look!: Modern Vision and the Weimar Photographic Book

Pepper Stetler

ISBN 10: 0472119664 / ISBN 13: 9780472119660

Published by University of Michigan Press, 2015

About this Item

Leichte Kratzer / Abnutzungen / Druckstellen; Leichte Rillen / Abschurfungen / Risse / Knicke. In the second half of the Weimar period (1918-33), photographers produced books consisting almost entirely of sequenced images. The subjects ranged widely: from plants and nature to the modern metropolis, from exotic cultures to the German Volk , from anonymous workers to historical figures. While many of the books were created by key practitioners and theorists of modern photography, scholars have rarely addressed the significance of the book format to modern conceptions of photographic meaning. The term "photo-essay" implies that these photographic books were equivalent to literary endeavors, created by replacing text with images, but such assumptions fail to explore the motivations of the books' makers.Stop Reading! Look! argues that Weimar photographic books stood at the center of debates about photography's ability to provide uniquely visual forms of perception and cognition that exceed the capacity of the textual realm. Each chapter provides a sustained analysis of a photographic book, while also bringing the cultural, social, and political context of the Weimar Republic to bear on its relevance and meaning.

Seller Inventory # 210406a1-658f-46b0-b4b5-10316a09ebdd

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Stop Reading! Look!: Modern Vision and the Weimar Photographic Book
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0472119664
• ISBN 13: 9780472119660
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Photography

About this title

Synopsis

In the second half of the Weimar period (1918–33), photographers produced books consisting almost entirely of sequenced images. The subjects ranged widely: from plants and nature to the modern metropolis, from exotic cultures to the German Volk, from anonymous workers to historical figures. While many of the books were created by key practitioners and theorists of modern photography, scholars have rarely addressed the significance of the book format to modern conceptions of photographic meaning. The term “photo-essay” implies that these photographic books were equivalent to literary endeavors, created by replacing text with images, but such assumptions fail to explore the motivations of the books’ makers.


Stop Reading! Look! argues that Weimar photographic books stood at the center of debates about photography’s ability to provide uniquely visual forms of perception and cognition that exceed the capacity of the textual realm. Each chapter provides a sustained analysis of a photographic book, while also bringing the cultural, social, and political context of the Weimar Republic to bear on its relevance and meaning.

About the Author

Pepper Stetler is Assistant Professor of Art History at Miami University.