Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Thanks to the tremendous impact of the digital process and its capacity for manipulation, our current notions of what photography is as well as what a photograph represents is changing. Accompanying an international exhibit sponsored by the Siemens Kulturprogramm, this collection of essays brings together a multitude of positions on the subject. For those who do not know much about photographic issues, whether historic or contemporary, this wide-ranging study is an interesting and fruitful place to start. The body of essays review, debate, and probe the potential of new technologies without ignoring the natural interactivity between photography and social norms. In that sense, this book can be read as a platform for cultural as well as artistic speculation. Now that we can technically alter the qualities of what used to be the smallest element, the pixel, we are verging on reinventing all notions of representation. An important book, but one that will have more appeal to academic and art libraries.‘Susan M. Olcott, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., Ohio (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

This is one of the most thoughtful and provocative collections of photographic works that utilize digital technologies on the market today. It artfully balances a stimulating collection of 14 essays by well-known theorists, who address the complexities and cultural implications of digital technologies, with an extremely useful survey of art produced by a diverse group of 30 international artists, who concentrate on photographic imaging strategies in the computer age. Three fundamental questions drive the essays and shape the exhibition: Is an image brought about by means of computer radically different from an image taken by a lens? Does digital image processing force us to reevaluate such concepts as realism or representation? Is the referential character of photography canceled out when the computer is used? Published (in both a German and an English edition) as a companion catalog to the traveling international exhibition, this book includes high-quality art reproductions, which provide stunning visual documentation both in black and white and in color. An appendix includes biographical information on the artists and authors as well as a selected bibliography on art and technology. This is a must for anyone interested in digital art. General; undergraduate (including two-year technical program) through professional. J. Natal Columbia College (IL)