The Photography Cultures Reader ― Representation, Agency and Identity

The Photography Cultures Reader: Representation, Agency and Identity engages with contemporary debates surrounding photographic cultures and practices from a variety of perspectives, providing insight and analysis for students and practitioners.

With over 100 images included, the diverse essays in this collection explore key topics such as: conflict and reportage, politics of race and gender, the family album, fashion, tourism and surveillance, art and archives, social media and the networked image. The collection brings together essays by leading experts, scholars and photographers including Geoffrey Batchen, Elizabeth Edwards, Stuart Hall, bell hooks, Martha Langford, Lucy Lippard, Fred Ritchin, Allan Sekula and Val Williams. The depth and scope of this collection is testament to the cultural significance of photography and photographic study, with each themed section featuring an editor’s introduction that sets the ideas and debates in context.

Along with its companion volume – The Photography Reader: History and Theory – this is the most comprehensive introduction to photography and photographic criticism.

Includes essays by: Roberta McGrath, Jan Avgikos, Sarah Edge, Gail Baylis, Lucy R. Lippard, Catherine Lutz, Jane Collins, Ariadne Van de Ven, Theopasti Stylianou-Lambert, Louise Wolthers, John Berger, Fred Ritchin, Francis Frascina, Liam Kennedy, Sharon Sliwinski, Ariella Azoulay, Elzabeth Hoak-Doering, André Gunther, Ethan Zuckerman, Mette Mortensen, David A. Bailey, Stuart Hall, George Dimock, bell hooks, Annette Kuhn, Rosy Martin, Jo Spence, Lily Cho, Pat Holland, Martha Langford, Geoffrey Batchen, Lev Manovich, Daniel Rubenstein, Katrina Sluis, Roland Barthes, Judith Williamson, Yasmin Ibrahim, Karin E. Becker, Carol Squiers, Ulrich Lehmann, Karen de Perthuis, Val Williams, Douglas Crimp, Thierry Du Duve, Allan Sekula, Elizabeth Edwards, Liz Wells, David Bate

Liz Wells curator and writer, is Professor in Photographic Culture, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Plymouth University, UK. She edited Photography: A Critical Introduction, (Routledge, 2015, 5^th ed.) and co-edits photographies, Routledge journals. Publications on landscape include Land Matters, Landscape Photography, Culture and Identity (I B Tauris, 2011). She is series editor for Photography, Place, Environment, Bloomsbury Academic Publishing.