What Photography Is (Book Review)

Explain the central purpose of the book and briefly explain how it is set up to accomplish this purpose. So, thanks to James Elkins, this task, for me at least is a little difficult to do. The title of this book, What Photography Is, may lead one to think that it’s a book based on aperture, focus, FOV, white balance, etc. Not so, this book dives deeper into an image then I myself could ever do. James Elkins, is Chadbourne Chair in the department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago. (Elkins) The central purpose of this book I believe, is to get people to critically analyze photographs and not just look at them for appreciation, although appreciation can be included. “Photography can be compared, I thought when I first found the photograph, to that selenite window. It promises a view of the world, but gives us a flattened object in which wrecked reminders of the world are lodged. (Elkins) A photograph is a flattened physical image that one can hold in their hands. “Wrecked Reminders” I take it as what once had a purpose in a photograph then, may have no significance now in the present. For example, an old boy/girlfriend etc. The way James Elkins sets the book up is interesting. He starts off by telling a story of looking through a selenite window. And I realized then, with an amazement I have not been able to lessen since: “This is the condition of photography”. (Elkins)
I think what he is trying to say here is that when you look out a selenite window, your vision is blurred and you have to make sense of what you are seeing. Every person that looks out the window has a different view. He then goes on throughout the book referencing different authors. Barthes, who wrote the book Camera Lucida, talks about his mothers passing and the feelings he experienced. James Elkins talks about other authors as well but Barthes is the main theorist that he compares his theories on photography with. James Elkins methodology for his book relies on the feeling that a person gets when analyzing a photograph. In one part of the book he uses microscopic animals called “Water Bears.” He talks about how the shape of the organism resembles that of a bear but after further inspection, you start to notice the organs through the translucent skin. (Elkins) We have to look deep into an object than take a superficial glance. One quote from the book had me perplexed but at the same time curious. Blanchot, who is a French philosopher, “Photography is at once, altogether outside, without intimacy, and yet more accessible and mysterious than the thought of the innermost being.” To me, he is saying that photographs are so wonderful because everyone other than the person in the picture themselves, gets to share their own ideas on the image and not have the knowledge of the person who was in the photograph. Everyone shares their own views. I think readers would benefit from reading this book, only if they wanted to really be confused. That seems harsh and juvenile to say. This is a great book that really gets you thinking. If I had read it two or three times, then I could maybe offer a better analysis on the book. For the most part I understood it in the end. Photography is a hobby that one can take up and not think about. If you really want to extract anything meaningful from your work, then you have to be willing to spends hours upon hours staring at not just a couple of photographs, but one! James Elkins, does just that. He talks about how he can bring himself to almost insanity on a picture, forget about it for a few months, then come back and get a new and exciting view of the image. So, if you have the desire to learn more than just taking pictures and seeing how you can pull so much meaning out of a single photo, this book is for you. If you find that you are only interested in the flashy look of a photo, I would tell you to still read this book. It gave me a new way of thinking about photography. In the end of this reading are some very troubling pictures. This is what threw me off the most. It’s not that I can’t handle seeing these pictures. It’s the fact that I do not understand why I had to be immersed in the pictures. I do not understand, but I do. If we do not force ourselves to look at objects, pictures, or just life in general, then we as humans will never really grow internally. That is what I think this book is about. Again, I could be wrong but James Elkins makes me think about his book and thats what I feel the main goal was. To get you to think. Not only think, think differently.

Reference

Elkins, James. What Photography Is. New York, NY: Routledge, 2011. Print.