On Photographs
Thames & Hudson / MIT Press / Enaudi Editore
SELECTED ARTICLES AND TEXTS
2023
2022
On Photographs by David Campany
An exploration of photography in 120 photographs.
In On Photographs, curator and writer David Campany presents an exploration of photography in 120 photographs. Proceeding not by chronology or genre or photographer, Campany’s eclectic selection unfolds according to its own logic. We see work by Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Eggleston, Helen Levitt, Garry Winogrand, Yves Louise Lawler, Andreas Gursky, and Rineke Dijkstra. There is fashion photography by William Klein, one of Vivian Maier’s contact sheets, and a carefully staged scene by Gregory Crewdson, as well as images culled from magazines and advertisements. Each of the 120 photographs is accompanied by Campany’s lucid and incisive commentary, considering the history of that image and its creator, interpreting its content and meaning, and connecting and contextualizing it with visual culture. Image by image, we absorb and appreciate Campany’s complex yet playful take on photography and its history.
The title, On Photographs, alludes to Susan Sontag’s influential and groundbreaking On Photography. As an undergraduate, Campany met Sontag and questioned her assessment of photography without including specific photographs. Sontag suggested that someday Campany could write his own book on the subject, titled On Photographs. Now he has.
The title, On Photographs, alludes to Susan Sontag’s influential and groundbreaking On Photography. As an undergraduate, Campany met Sontag and questioned her assessment of photography without including specific photographs. Sontag suggested that someday Campany could write his own book on the subject, titled On Photographs. Now he has.
Thames & Hudson (UK)
MIT Press (USA)
Guilio Einaudi Editore (Italy)
2021
2019
2018
Why exhibit ?
Positions on Exhibiting Photographies
FW:books
Why Exhibit?
Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger, Iris Sikking (eds) — Why exhibit? Positions on Exhibiting Photographies
FW:books
368 pages / 16,5×23,5 cm / softcover / colour / isbn 9789490119720 / 32 euro (excl. shipping)
This publication offers a spectrum of views on how the myriad forms of exhibiting photographies can increase our understanding of how images operate today, as well as what they do to us when we interact with them. In the Digital Age, “photography” is best described with adjectives connoting a medium in constant flux: liquid, fluid, flexible, unstable. As such, there is no primary format for displaying photographs. However, with all of the medium’s formats, modes, and approaches, it is important to question how we see photographic images—and to ask why, by whom, and for what purposes the images were produced in the first place. By drawing upon the diverse perspectives of a group of curators, scholars, photographers, and artists based in the field of contemporary photography, this volume aims to provide a foundation for a wider discourse about exhibiting photographies in the twenty-first century.
With essays from:
Gigi Argyropoulou, Taco Hidde Bakker, Nicoló Degiorgis, Doris Gassert, Marko Karo, Kim Knoppers, Suvi Lehtinen, Tanvi Mishra, Niclas Östlind, Krzysztof Pijarski, Karolina Puchała-Rojek, Tuomo Rainio, Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger, Iris Sikking, Anna Tellgren, Lars Willumeit. And conversations with: Ahmed Alalousi, Lisa Barnard, Natasha Caruana, Mark Curran, Robert Knoth, Bettina Leidl, Marina Paulenka, Rune Peitersen, Susan Schuppli, Jules Spinatsch, Penelope Umbrico, Anni Wallenius.
Book Launch at PARIS PHOTO 2018
Thursday November 8, 7:00 pm at the Institut Finlandais, 60, rue des Écoles (5th Arr.)
2016
2015
2014
Camera Austria International No. 127
Jan Wenzel – The Revolving Bookshelf, pages 92 – 93
on Monograph Vienna MMIX 10008/7000
2012
Après la photographie
de l’argentique ä la revolution numerique
edited by Quentin Bajac, Edition Gallimard, Paris
2011
2010
Globalization, violence, and the visual culture of cities
„Nothing Happens, Twice“ essay about Temporary Discomfort and the Surveillance Panoramas by Hugh Campbell
edited by Christoph Lindner, Routledge
2009
2008
Art in America, Art and Politics, June 2008
„Rules of Engagement“ by Marcia Vetrocq
P. 168–175 and P. 208/209
Parkett # 81, 2008
„Backstage of Reality“ Text by Martin Jaeggi on Snow Management, Temporary Discomfort, Heisenberg Offside, Surveillance Panorama Projects
P. 162–172 d/e
Photography and Cinema (Exposures) by David Campany
Reaktion Books, 127 Illustrations 160p, London 2008
P. 91–93
2006
Fabre n’est pas venu
le Printemps de Septembre, 2006
