essay on photography

Essays About Photography: Top 5 Examples Plus Prompts

Discover the joy of photography by reading our guide on how to write essays about photography, including top essay examples and writing prompts. 

It is truly remarkable what pictures can tell you about the time they were taken and their subjects. For example, a well-taken photograph can expose the horrors of conflict in a war-torn country or the pain endured by victims of racial persecution. At the same time, it can also evoke a mother’s joy after seeing her newborn baby for the first time. Photography is crucial to preserving precious moments that deserve to be remembered.

Photography can be considered a form of art. So much intent is put into a picture’s composition, subject, angle, and lighting. There is a lot of talent, thought, and hard work that goes into photography to produce such thought-provoking images, 

If you are writing essays about photography, you can start by reading some examples. 

5 Essay Examples To Inspire You

1. why photography is a great hobby by lillie lane, 2. the importance of photography by emily holty, 3. why i love photography by bob locher.

• 4.  The Shocking History Of Death Photography by Yewande Ade
• 5. ​​Fashion photography by Sara Page

5 Helpful Prompts On Essays About Photography

1. what is your favorite thing to photograph, 2. why is photography so important, 3. should photography be considered an art form, 4. different types of photography, 5. interpretations of photographs.

“Be imaginative when writing your shots. Photography is about the impact of your chances. The odds are good that nobody will care to check over your picture When it is an item in a background. Discover how to produce a fantastic photograph, and take these skills and use them.”

Lane gives readers tips on taking better photos in this essay. These include keeping balance, choosing a subject widely, investing in certain pieces of equipment, and using the appropriate settings for taking pictures. She stresses that photos must appear as natural as possible, and following her advice may help people to get good pictures. 

“No matter where you go photography plays into your life somehow. We don’t realize how big of an impact photography truly has on us until we see the details of our life hidden in a photograph. When you flip through your photo album and start looking for those details you suddenly realize you are truly blessed. A photograph keeps a moment frozen in time so we have it forever. Something like joy becomes clearer as we look deeper into the photograph.”

Holty does an excellent job of describing what makes photography so appealing to many people. You can take a picture of anything you want if you want to remember it, and photos help us look at the intricacies and details of what we see around us every day. Photography also helps us keep memories in our heads and hearts as time passes by, and most of all, it allows us to document the greatness of our world. It is ever-present in our lives, and we will keep taking photos the more adventures we have. 

“Every day in normal circumstances people take thousands of pictures of the Grand Canyon. It takes very little thought to realize that few if any of these pictures will be in any way noteworthy above pictures already taken. But that said, they are OUR pictures, our personal affirmation of the wonderful scene stretched out below us, and that gives them a special validity for us.”

Locher reflects on the role photography played in his life and why he enjoys it so much, partly due to his spirituality. He previously worked in the photographic equipment business and rekindled his love for photography in his 60s. Photography, to him, is a way of affirming and acknowledging God’s creations around him and appreciating the natural world. He also briefly discusses the importance of equipment and post-editing; however, no photo is perfect. 

4.   The Shocking History Of Death Photography by Yewande Ade

“In fact, it was easier for the photographer if the dead person was in a sleeping position because there would be no need to put him or her in an appropriate position or prop the eyes open. The restful pose gave some families comfort because it made them believe that their loved one(s) had passed on happily and to a more peaceful realm. It gave the semblance of death as a painless act like sleep.”

An interesting phenomenon in the history of the camera is post-mortem photography, in which deceased people, usually children, were posed and made to look “alive,” to an extent, so their loved ones could remember them. This was done as a way of mourning; the subjects were made to look as if they were merely asleep to give their loved ones comfort that they had passed on peacefully and happily. Eventually, a reduction in the death rate led to the end of this practice. 

5. ​​ Fashion photography by Sara Page

“Modern fashion photography differs because photographers aim to be extraordinary with their work, they know that extra ordinary will interest the audience much more It is extremely evident that fashion photography has changed and developed throughout the years, however there is not just reason. It is clear that fashion photography has changed and developed because of advancements in technology, change in attitudes and the introduction of celebrities.”

Page’s essay focuses on the history of fashion photography and some techniques used in practice. It dated back to 1911 and astonished the public with glamorous photos of people wearing perfectly-styled outfits. As the years have gone on, photographers have taken the lighting of the photos more into account, as well as their settings. In addition, editing software such as Photoshop has allowed even better photos to be produced. Fashion photography has only become more extravagant with the current social culture. 

In your essay, write about your favorite subject when you take pictures- is it people, landscapes, objects, or something else? Explain why, give examples, and perhaps elaborate on your camera settings or the lighting you look for when taking photos.  

Photography is an important invention that has helped us immensely throughout the years- how exactly? Explain why photography rivals painting and why it is essential. Then, write about its importance to you, the entire world, and humanity. 

Some say photography pales compared to the intricacies of music, painting, sculpture, and even cinema and should not be considered a form of art. For an interesting argumentative essay, determine whether photography is genuine art or not and defend your position. Explore both sides of the topic and give a strong rebuttal against the opposing viewpoint. 

From street photography to food photography to portraiture, many different types of photography are classified according to the subject being captured. Write about at least three types of photography that interest you and what they entail. You may also discuss some similarities between them if any. Check out our list of the top CreativeLive photography courses .

Like other works of art, a photograph can be interpreted differently. Choose a photo you find exciting and describe how you feel about it. What is being portrayed? What emotions are being evoked? What did the photographer want to show here? Reflect on your chosen work and perhaps connect it with your personal life. 

For help with your essays, check out our round-up of the best essay checkers . If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips !

Martin is an avid writer specializing in editing and proofreading. He also enjoys literary analysis and writing about food and travel.

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Essay on Photography

Students are often asked to write an essay on Photography in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Photography

What is photography.

Photography is the art of capturing pictures using a camera. A camera is like a box that keeps a moment from running away. When you take a photo, you save a memory that you can see later.

Types of Photography

There are many kinds of photography. Some people take photos of nature, like mountains and rivers. Others click pictures of cities or people. Some even capture stars at night. Each type tells a different story.

The Importance of Photography

Photos are important because they help us remember past times. They show us how things were and how they have changed. Photos can make us feel happy or sad by reminding us of different moments.

Learning Photography

Anyone can learn photography. You start by learning how to use a camera. Then you practice taking photos. Over time, you get better at making your pictures look nice. It’s fun to learn and can become a hobby or a job.

Also check:

• Paragraph on Photography

250 Words Essay on Photography

Photography is the art of capturing light with a camera to create a picture. This can be done using a digital camera or even a phone today. In the past, people used film cameras that had to be developed in a dark room.

The Magic of Cameras

A camera is a tool that takes in light through a lens and saves the image. In old cameras, light hit a film to create a photo. Now, digital cameras use electronic sensors to record the image. The sensors work like our eyes, catching light and colors.

There are many kinds of photography. Some people take pictures of nature, like forests and animals. Others like to take photos of cities and buildings. There are also photographers who take pictures of people and capture their emotions and moments.

To be good at photography, you need to learn how to use a camera well. You also need to understand light and how it affects your photos. Practice is important. The more you take pictures, the better you get at it.

Sharing Photos

After taking pictures, people often share them with others. They might put them on the internet, in a photo album, or hang them on a wall. Sharing photos lets others see the world through your eyes.

Photography is a fun and creative way to show how you see the world. It can be a hobby or a job, and it helps us remember special times and places.

500 Words Essay on Photography

Photography is the art of capturing light with a camera to create an image. This can be done using a digital camera that stores pictures electronically or an old-fashioned film camera that records them on film. When you take a photo, you freeze a moment in time, which you can look back on later.

The History of Photography

The story of photography began hundreds of years ago with simple cameras called pinhole cameras. Over time, inventors created better cameras and ways to make pictures clearer and more colorful. In the past, taking a photo was not easy; it took a long time for the picture to be ready. But now, thanks to modern technology, we can take pictures instantly with digital cameras and even our phones.

There are many kinds of photography. Some people take pictures of nature, like mountains, flowers, or animals. This is called nature photography. Others enjoy taking pictures of buildings or cities, known as architectural photography. Then there are photographers who like to take pictures of people. This can be portraits of one person or family photos with lots of people. Another exciting type is sports photography, where photographers capture fast-moving action at sports events.

How Photography Works

A camera works a bit like our eyes. When we look at something, light enters our eyes and helps us see. Similarly, when you take a picture, light comes into the camera through a hole called the lens. Inside the camera, the light hits a part that is sensitive to light, either film or a digital sensor, and creates an image.

Photography is important for many reasons. It helps us remember special moments like birthdays or holidays. It also lets us see places we’ve never been to and learn about different people and animals. Newspapers and websites use photos to show us what is happening in the world. Photography can even be a way for people to express their feelings and tell stories without using words.

Anyone can learn to take good photos. It’s not just about having an expensive camera. It’s about looking carefully at what you want to photograph and thinking about where to place things in the picture. It’s also about practicing a lot. The more photos you take, the better you get at it. There are also many books and videos that can teach you how to be a better photographer.

The Fun of Photography

Photography can be a lot of fun. It lets you be creative and can even turn into a hobby or a job. You can take pictures of your friends, pets, or trips you go on. With photography, you can explore new places and meet new people. The best part is, you can start at any age and keep learning and enjoying it your whole life.

In conclusion, photography is a powerful form of art that lets us capture memories, explore the world, and share stories. It’s a skill that anyone can learn and enjoy. Whether you’re taking a picture of a beautiful sunset or snapping a photo of your best friend laughing, photography helps us save those special moments forever.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Phone Addiction
• Essay on Phishing
• Essay on Pet Fish

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

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How to Create an Engaging Photo Essay (with Examples)

Photo essays tell a story in pictures. They're a great way to improve at photography and story-telling skills at once. Learn how to do create a great one.

Learn | Photography Guides | By Ana Mireles

Photography is a medium used to tell stories – sometimes they are told in one picture, sometimes you need a whole series. Those series can be photo essays.

If you’ve never done a photo essay before, or you’re simply struggling to find your next project, this article will be of help. I’ll be showing you what a photo essay is and how to go about doing one.

You’ll also find plenty of photo essay ideas and some famous photo essay examples from recent times that will serve you as inspiration.

If you’re ready to get started, let’s jump right in!

Table of Contents

What is a Photo Essay?

A photo essay is a series of images that share an overarching theme as well as a visual and technical coherence to tell a story. Some people refer to a photo essay as a photo series or a photo story – this often happens in photography competitions.

Photographic history is full of famous photo essays. Think about The Great Depression by Dorothea Lange, Like Brother Like Sister by Wolfgang Tillmans, Gandhi’s funeral by Henri Cartier Bresson, amongst others.

What are the types of photo essay?

Despite popular belief, the type of photo essay doesn’t depend on the type of photography that you do – in other words, journalism, documentary, fine art, or any other photographic genre is not a type of photo essay.

Instead, there are two main types of photo essays: narrative and thematic .

As you have probably already guessed, the thematic one presents images pulled together by a topic – for example, global warming. The images can be about animals and nature as well as natural disasters devastating cities. They can happen all over the world or in the same location, and they can be captured in different moments in time – there’s a lot of flexibility.

A narrative photo essa y, on the other hand, tells the story of a character (human or not), portraying a place or an event. For example, a narrative photo essay on coffee would document the process from the planting and harvesting – to the roasting and grinding until it reaches your morning cup.

What are some of the key elements of a photo essay?

• Tell a unique story – A unique story doesn’t mean that you have to photograph something that nobody has done before – that would be almost impossible! It means that you should consider what you’re bringing to the table on a particular topic.
• Put yourself into the work – One of the best ways to make a compelling photo essay is by adding your point of view, which can only be done with your life experiences and the way you see the world.
• Add depth to the concept – The best photo essays are the ones that go past the obvious and dig deeper in the story, going behind the scenes, or examining a day in the life of the subject matter – that’s what pulls in the spectator.
• Nail the technique – Even if the concept and the story are the most important part of a photo essay, it won’t have the same success if it’s poorly executed.
• Build a structure – A photo essay is about telling a thought-provoking story – so, think about it in a narrative way. Which images are going to introduce the topic? Which ones represent a climax? How is it going to end – how do you want the viewer to feel after seeing your photo series?
• Make strong choices – If you really want to convey an emotion and a unique point of view, you’re going to need to make some hard decisions. Which light are you using? Which lens? How many images will there be in the series? etc., and most importantly for a great photo essay is the why behind those choices.

9 Tips for Creating a Photo Essay

Credit: Laura James

1. Choose something you know

To make a good photo essay, you don’t need to travel to an exotic location or document a civil war – I mean, it’s great if you can, but you can start close to home.

Depending on the type of photography you do and the topic you’re looking for in your photographic essay, you can photograph a local event or visit an abandoned building outside your town.

It will be much easier for you to find a unique perspective and tell a better story if you’re already familiar with the subject. Also, consider that you might have to return a few times to the same location to get all the photos you need.

2. Follow your passion

Most photo essays take dedication and passion. If you choose a subject that might be easy, but you’re not really into it – the results won’t be as exciting. Taking photos will always be easier and more fun if you’re covering something you’re passionate about.

3. Take your time

A great photo essay is not done in a few hours. You need to put in the time to research it, conceptualizing it, editing, etc. That’s why I previously recommended following your passion because it takes a lot of dedication, and if you’re not passionate about it – it’s difficult to push through.

4. Write a summary or statement

Photo essays are always accompanied by some text. You can do this in the form of an introduction, write captions for each photo or write it as a conclusion. That’s up to you and how you want to present the work.

5. Learn from the masters

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Making a photographic essay takes a lot of practice and knowledge. A great way to become a better photographer and improve your storytelling skills is by studying the work of others. You can go to art shows, review books and magazines and look at the winners in photo contests – most of the time, there’s a category for photo series.

6. Get a wide variety of photos

Think about a story – a literary one. It usually tells you where the story is happening, who is the main character, and it gives you a few details to make you engage with it, right?

The same thing happens with a visual story in a photo essay – you can do some wide-angle shots to establish the scenes and some close-ups to show the details. Make a shot list to ensure you cover all the different angles.

Some of your pictures should guide the viewer in, while others are more climatic and regard the experience they are taking out of your photos.

7. Follow a consistent look

Both in style and aesthetics, all the images in your series need to be coherent. You can achieve this in different ways, from the choice of lighting, the mood, the post-processing, etc.

8. Be self-critical

Once you have all the photos, make sure you edit them with a good dose of self-criticism. Not all the pictures that you took belong in the photo essay. Choose only the best ones and make sure they tell the full story.

9. Ask for constructive feedback

Often, when we’re working on a photo essay project for a long time, everything makes perfect sense in our heads. However, someone outside the project might not be getting the idea. It’s important that you get honest and constructive criticism to improve your photography.

How to Create a Photo Essay in 5 Steps

Credit: Quang Nguyen Vinh

1. Choose your topic

This is the first step that you need to take to decide if your photo essay is going to be narrative or thematic. Then, choose what is it going to be about?

Ideally, it should be something that you’re interested in, that you have something to say about it, and it can connect with other people.

2. Research your topic

To tell a good story about something, you need to be familiar with that something. This is especially true when you want to go deeper and make a compelling photo essay. Day in the life photo essays are a popular choice, since often, these can be performed with friends and family, whom you already should know well.

3. Plan your photoshoot

Depending on what you’re photographing, this step can be very different from one project to the next. For a fine art project, you might need to find a location, props, models, a shot list, etc., while a documentary photo essay is about planning the best time to do the photos, what gear to bring with you, finding a local guide, etc.

Every photo essay will need different planning, so before taking pictures, put in the required time to get things right.

4. Experiment

It’s one thing to plan your photo shoot and having a shot list that you have to get, or else the photo essay won’t be complete. It’s another thing to miss out on some amazing photo opportunities that you couldn’t foresee.

So, be prepared but also stay open-minded and experiment with different settings, different perspectives, etc.

5. Make a final selection

Editing your work can be one of the hardest parts of doing a photo essay. Sometimes we can be overly critical, and others, we get attached to bad photos because we put a lot of effort into them or we had a great time doing them.

Try to be as objective as possible, don’t be afraid to ask for opinions and make various revisions before settling down on a final cut.

7 Photo Essay Topics, Ideas & Examples

Credit: Michelle Leman

• Architectural photo essay

Using architecture as your main subject, there are tons of photo essay ideas that you can do. For some inspiration, you can check out the work of Francisco Marin – who was trained as an architect and then turned to photography to “explore a different way to perceive things”.

You can also lookup Luisa Lambri. Amongst her series, you’ll find many photo essay examples in which architecture is the subject she uses to explore the relationship between photography and space.

• Process and transformation photo essay

This is one of the best photo essay topics for beginners because the story tells itself. Pick something that has a beginning and an end, for example, pregnancy, the metamorphosis of a butterfly, the life-cycle of a plant, etc.

Keep in mind that these topics are linear and give you an easy way into the narrative flow – however, it might be difficult to find an interesting perspective and a unique point of view.

• A day in the life of ‘X’ photo essay

There are tons of interesting photo essay ideas in this category – you can follow around a celebrity, a worker, your child, etc. You don’t even have to do it about a human subject – think about doing a photo essay about a day in the life of a racing horse, for example – find something that’s interesting for you.

• Time passing by photo essay

It can be a natural site or a landmark photo essay – whatever is close to you will work best as you’ll need to come back multiple times to capture time passing by. For example, how this place changes throughout the seasons or maybe even over the years.

A fun option if you live with family is to document a birthday party each year, seeing how the subject changes over time. This can be combined with a transformation essay or sorts, documenting the changes in interpersonal relationships over time.

• Travel photo essay

Do you want to make the jump from tourist snapshots into a travel photo essay? Research the place you’re going to be travelling to. Then, choose a topic.

If you’re having trouble with how to do this, check out any travel magazine – National Geographic, for example. They won’t do a generic article about Texas – they do an article about the beach life on the Texas Gulf Coast and another one about the diverse flavors of Texas.

The more specific you get, the deeper you can go with the story.

• Socio-political issues photo essay

This is one of the most popular photo essay examples – it falls under the category of photojournalism or documental photography. They are usually thematic, although it’s also possible to do a narrative one.

Depending on your topic of interest, you can choose topics that involve nature – for example, document the effects of global warming. Another idea is to photograph protests or make an education photo essay.

It doesn’t have to be a big global issue; you can choose something specific to your community – are there too many stray dogs? Make a photo essay about a local animal shelter. The topics are endless.

• Behind the scenes photo essay

A behind-the-scenes always make for a good photo story – people are curious to know what happens and how everything comes together before a show.

Depending on your own interests, this can be a photo essay about a fashion show, a theatre play, a concert, and so on. You’ll probably need to get some permissions, though, not only to shoot but also to showcase or publish those images.

4 Best Photo Essays in Recent times

Now that you know all the techniques about it, it might be helpful to look at some photo essay examples to see how you can put the concept into practice. Here are some famous photo essays from recent times to give you some inspiration.

Habibi by Antonio Faccilongo

This photo essay wan the World Press Photo Story of the Year in 2021. Faccilongo explores a very big conflict from a very specific and intimate point of view – how the Israeli-Palestinian war affects the families.

He chose to use a square format because it allows him to give order to things and eliminate unnecessary elements in his pictures.

With this long-term photo essay, he wanted to highlight the sense of absence and melancholy women and families feel towards their husbands away at war.

The project then became a book edited by Sarah Leen and the graphics of Ramon Pez.

Picture This: New Orleans by Mary Ellen Mark

The last assignment before her passing, Mary Ellen Mark travelled to New Orleans to register the city after a decade after Hurricane Katrina.

The images of the project “bring to life the rebirth and resilience of the people at the heart of this tale”, – says CNNMoney, commissioner of the work.

Each survivor of the hurricane has a story, and Mary Ellen Mark was there to record it. Some of them have heartbreaking stories about everything they had to leave behind.

Others have a story of hope – like Sam and Ben, two eight-year-olds born from frozen embryos kept in a hospital that lost power supply during the hurricane, yet they managed to survive.

Selfie by Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer whose work is mainly done through self-portraits. With them, she explores the concept of identity, gender stereotypes, as well as visual and cultural codes.

One of her latest photo essays was a collaboration with W Magazine entitled Selfie. In it, the author explores the concept of planned candid photos (‘plandid’).

The work was made for Instagram, as the platform is well known for the conflict between the ‘real self’ and the one people present online. Sherman started using Facetune, Perfect365 and YouCam to alter her appearance on selfies – in Photoshop, you can modify everything, but these apps were designed specifically to “make things prettier”- she says, and that’s what she wants to explore in this photo essay.

Tokyo Compression by Michael Wolf

Michael Wolf has an interest in the broad-gauge topic Life in Cities. From there, many photo essays have been derived – amongst them – Tokyo Compression .

He was horrified by the way people in Tokyo are forced to move to the suburbs because of the high prices of the city. Therefore, they are required to make long commutes facing 1,5 hours of train to start their 8+ hour workday followed by another 1,5 hours to get back home.

To portray this way of life, he photographed the people inside the train pressed against the windows looking exhausted, angry or simply absent due to this way of life.

You can visit his website to see other photo essays that revolve around the topic of life in megacities.

Final Words

It’s not easy to make photo essays, so don’t expect to be great at it right from your first project.

Start off small by choosing a specific subject that’s interesting to you –  that will come from an honest place, and it will be a great practice for some bigger projects along the line.

Whether you like to shoot still life or you’re a travel photographer, I hope these photo essay tips and photo essay examples can help you get started and grow in your photography.

Let us know which topics you are working on right now – we’ll love to hear from you!

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Ana Mireles is a Mexican researcher that specializes in photography and communications for the arts and culture sector.

Penelope G. To Ana Mireles Such a well written and helpful article for an writer who wants to inclue photo essay in her memoir. Thank you. I will get to work on this new skill. Penelope G.

Herman Krieger Photo essays in black and white

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Daguerreotype

Anonymous American photographer.  "Gustav Adolf Hiller, his wife Julia, and their daughter Luise," 1851-52.   In: A Guide to Early Photographic Processes, e dited by Brian Coe and Mark Haworth-Booth, p. 36. London: Victoria and Albert Museum in association with Hurtwood Press, 1983.

Atkins, Anna. "Festuca ovina (fescue grass)," 1854.  (Victoria and Albert Museum, London). In:  A Guide to Early Photographic Processes, edited by Brian Coe and Mark Haworth-Booth, p. 79. London: Victoria and Albert Museum in association with Hurtwood Press, 1983.

Talbot, William Henry Fox. "The Open Door April," 1844.  (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).  In:  A Guide to Early Photographic Processes,  edited by Brian Coe and Mark Haworth-Booth, p. 41. London: Victoria and Albert Museum in association with Hurtwood Press, 1983.

Marville, Charles.  "Paris, Rue Glatigny," 1865. (Private collection.)  In:   Photography, 1839-1937: [exhibition March 1937],  edited by Beaumont Newhall, plate 25. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1937.

Woodburytype

Thompson, John.  "Covent Garden Flower Women," 1877.  (John Paul Getty Museum.)  In:   Looking at Photographs: A Guide to Technical Terms , by  Gordon Baldwin and Martin Jürgens, p. 90 . Malibu, CA: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2009.

Atget, Eugene.  "Ragpicker," early 20th century. (Collection of Berenice Abbott).  In:   Photography, 1839-1937: [exhibition March 1937],  edited by Beaumont Newhall, plate 44. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1937.

Histories of photography

Burgin, Victor, editor.   Thinking Photography .  Communications and Culture. London: Macmillan Press, 1982.

Essays intended as "contributions towards photography theory...'towards' rather than 'to' as the theory does not yet exist; [though] as these essays indicate, some of its components may already be identified."  Includes articles by Walter Benjamin, Umberto Eco, Victor Burgin, Allan Sekula, John Tagg, and Simon Watney.

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*Clarke, Graham.   The Photograph .   Series: Oxford History of Art.  Oxford, NY:  Oxford University Press, 1997.

Concise but immensely useful exploration of the photograph, including chapters on What is a Photograph?; how we read photographs; landscape, the city, the portrait, and the body in photographs; documentary photography; the photograph as fine art; and the manipulated photograph.  Also includes a bibliographic essay, timeline, and glossary.

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Coke, Van Deren.   One Hundred Years of Photographic History: Essays in Honor of Beaumont Newhall . Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1975.

Festschrift for Beaumont Newhall, "the preeminent photographic historian of our time and...one of the most influential personalities in modern photography," written by important scholars in the field such as Helmut Gernsheim, John Szarkowski, and Minor White.

Clark Offsite Storage  N25 N48 C63

Eder, Joseph Maria .   History of Photography .  Translated by Edward Epstean.  NY:  Dover Publications, 1978.

"The most extensive history of photomechanical printing published." (Hanson Collection catalog.)  Important history of photography-related technology with a German emphasis; also contains international biography and social history.  Translated edition is not illustrated.  The chapter on “Photographic technical journals, societies, and educational institutions” is useful for bibliography.

Clark Stacks  NE2606 E3g E Repr.

———.  Quellenschriften Zu Den Frühesten Anfängen Der Photographie Bis Zum XVIII. Jahrhundert . The Sources of Modern Photography . New York: Arno Press, 1979.

Reprints original source texts, usually in Latin, with German translations, in the earliest history of photography up to the 18th century.  Includes an introductory essay by Eder and texts that describe eight seminal discoveries leading to the understanding and use of photographic chemistry.

Clark Stacks NE2606 E3 Repr 1979

Fouque, Victor.   The Truth Concerning the Invention of Photography: Nicéphore Niépce, His Life, Letters, and Works . Repr. ed. Literature of Photography. New York: Arno Press, 1973.

Makes the case that Niépce, not Daguerre, was the inventor of photography; to that end it publishes letters and an unpublished note addressed to the Royal Society of London that document these early developments in the history of photography.  Includes as well a biography of Niépce and a history of the works to which he devoted himself, often together with his brother Claude; a history of the invention of heliography, the original name of Photography, and the events and facts connected with it during Niépce's lifetime; and genealogical notes and history of the Niépce family.

Clark Stacks NE2698 N674 F68 1973

Frizot, Michael, editor.    A New History of Photography .  Köln: Könemann, 1998.

Translation of  Nouvelle Histoire de la Photographie,  Paris: Bordas, 1994.  Magisterial survey composes a “history” by combining 41 topical essays by noted authors.  Insets focused on a specific photograph or topic are included in each essay.  Fourteen additional illustrated sections enhance the text.  Includes an illustrated glossary of photographic processes by Anne Cartier-Bresson and a bibliography by Fred and Elisabeth Pajersky.

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Gernsheim, Helmut, and Alison Gernsheim .   The History of Photography from the Camera Obscura to the Beginning of the Modern Era .   NY:  McGraw-Hill, 1969.

“The standard history and reference work on photograph” (at least as of 1969).  Second edition has broader geographical coverage, updated information on technology, and more discussion of the artistic trands of the 20 th  century.  Includes annotated bibliography, comprehensive lists of photographic journals, annuals, and societies for the first ten  years, and bibliographic footnotes.

Clark Stacks  NE2606 G47 1969

Gernsheim, Helmut.    The Origins of Photography .  London:  Thames and Hudson, 1982.

This revised 3 rd  edition includes the first part of the History of Photography (above), with a new chapter on the origins of photography in Italy.  Covers the pre-photographic era through the use of calotype and oher paper process, whilce Gernsheim;’s The Rise of Photogaphy (below) begins with the albumen and collodian processes.  The final three sections on the gelatin period, some applications of  photography, and photography and the printed page hve not been released in a new edition.  Text and organization essentially unchanged from the relevant section of History of Photography but with additional illustrations.  An excellent source for historical data, photographers, and technologies.

Clark Stacks NE2606 G47 1982o

_____.    The Rise of Photography: 1850–1880, the Age of Collodion.   London:  Thames and Hudson, 1988.

The second part of Gernsheim’s History of Photography appears here in a revised third edition.  Begins with the introduction of the collodion process and continues through the development of dry plate processes.  Text and organization essentially  unchanged from the original History but with additional illustrations.  An excellent source for historical data, photographers, and technologies.

Clark Stacks  NE2606 G47 1988

Museum of Modern Art.   Photography, 1839-1937: [exhibition March 1937] .  Edited by Beaumont Newhall. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1937.

Catalog of the landmark exhibition curated by Beaumont Newhall. Includes an important essay on the history and aesthetics of photography and a brief bibliography.  See The History of Photography: From 1839 to the Present below for the most recent edition of Newhall's historical text.

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Newhall, Beaumont.   Focus: Memoirs of a Life in Photography . Boston: Little, Brown, 1993.

Chatty, interesting, well illustrated memoir by one of the most influential curators of modern photography.

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*———. The History of Photography:  From 1839 to the Present .  Boston:  Little, Brown, 1982.

Extensive revision and expansion of the landmark essay in Photography, 1839-1937 (see above), with new text and illustrations and revised bibliography, follows the same scheme of technological and aesthetic development of photography.  Expands coverage of topics thinly covered in previous editions, e.g. Dada and Surrealist photomontages.  Final chapter "New directions" ends with the mid-1960s. 

Clark Stacks  NE2606 N48 1937 5th ed. 

Rosenblum, Naomi .   A World History of Photography , 4 th  edition .  NY:  Abbeville Press, 2007.

Broadest coverage currently available for pre-1839 to early 1900s worldwide.  Extent of coverage does not allow thorough contextual development of specific topics of photographers.  Provides more focused examination in three short technical histories and six primarily illustrated sections on 19 th  century portraiture, the Western landscape, origins of photojournalism, origins of color in camera images, photography and social issues, and the industrial ethos.

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——— .   A History of Women Photographers , 3 rd  edition .   NY:  Abbeville Press, 1994.

Extensive coverage of a topic that has received scant attention in most histories.  The attempt to produce a comprehensive text does not allow in-depth discussion of individual photographers.  Primarily U.S. and European photographers.  Includes general and individual bibliographies by Peter Palmquist.

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Schwarz, Heinrich.   Techniken Des Sehens: Vor Und Nach Der Fotografie: Ausgewählte Schriften 1929-1966 .  Fotohof Edition, Band 70. Salzburg: Fotohof, 2006.

Sections on photography as art, photography and painting, the mirror and camera obscura. Includes a bibliography and list of source works.

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Snelling, Henry Hunt.   The History and Practice of the Art of Photography .  Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y: Morgan & Morgan, 1970.

Reprint of the original 1849 publication.  One of the first textbooks on photographic processes, prior to which initiation into the secrets of the trade was by personal instruction and experimentation.  Emphasizes the daguerreotype process, but includes detailed instruction on the paper negative process invented by Henry Fox Talbot.

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Sobieszek, Robert A., editor.   The Prehistory of Photography: Five Texts.  The Sources of Modern Photography. New York: Arno Press, 1979.

Includes reprints of five important texts by Germain Bapst, Georg Friederich Brander, Georges Potonniée, Henry Vivarez, and Isadore Niépce.

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*Szarkowski, John.   Photography Until Now .  New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1990.

Szarkowski, director of photography at MOMA for 25 years, presents his own history of photography, supporting his observations with an exciting choice of well-reproduced and seldom-seen images: portraits, news and war photos, landscapes, still lifes, architectural views, advertising, and medical images. Chronological chapters trace the mutual influences and evolution of technology and style, from "Before Photography" to the post-1960s period, "After the Magazines."

Clark Stacks NE2601 N48 1990

Werge, John. The Evolution of Photography . (Series: The Literature of Photography .)  New York:  Arno Press, 1973.

Reprint of the 1890 edition, which included the subtitle: "with a chronological record of discoveries, inventions, etc., contributions to photographic literature, and personal reminiscences extending over forty years."  Not intended as a textbook, the work endeavors to provide "a comprehensive and agreeable summary of all that has been done in the past, and yet convey a perfect knowledge of all the processes as they have appeared and effected radical changes in the practice of photography."

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Theory and criticism of photography

Bolton, Richard, editor.    The Contest of Meaning: Critical Histories of Photography .   Cambridge, MA:  MIT Press, 1989.

Postmodern criticism has campaigned for multiple “histories” vs. the monolithic “history” of photography.  Monographic “history” volumes are increasingly being supplemented by edited collections of essays that question traditional assumptions and methods.  Bolton’s collection includes work by 14 eminent contemporary critics, including Douglas Crimp, Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Carol Squiers, and Allan Sekula.

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Eisinger, Joel.    Trace and Transformation:  American Criticism of Photography in the Modernist Period.   Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995.

Straightforward examination of photographic criticism in the U.S.  Good introduction to Sadakichi Hartmann, Alfred Stieglitz, Beaumont Newhall, Minor White John Szarkowski, the Postmodern critics, and others.  Includes sections on pictorialism, straight and documentary photography, popular criticism, subjectivism, formalism, modernism and postmodernism.  Includes bibliography.

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*Elkins, James, editor .   Photography Theory .  London: Routledge, c2007.

P resents forty of the world's most active art historians and theorists, including Victor Burgin, Joel Snyder, Rosalind Krauss, Alan Trachtenberg, Geoffrey Batchen, Carol Squiers, Margaret Iversen and Abigail Solomon-Godeau, in animated debate on the definition and nature of photography.

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Hershberger, Andrew E., editor.   Photographic Theory: An Historical Anthology.   Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley Blackwell, 2014.

A compendium of readings, spanning ancient times to the digital age, related to the history, nature, and current status of debates in photographic theory.  Offers an authoritative and academically up-to-date compendium of the history of photographic theory and is to date the only collection to include ancient, Renaissance, and 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century writings on the subject.

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Marien, Mary Warner.    Photography and Its Critics: A Cultural History, 1839–1900.   NY:  Cambridge University Press, 1997.

From the series  Cambridge Perspectives on Photography .  “Presents photography as an idea, shaped by social concerns and inherited concepts, and as a burgeoning visual practice. “  Consistently citing 19 th -century sources as well as more modern critics, provides a history of the idea of photography, revealing both the existence of diverse photographic practices and shifting notions of modernity. 

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Tagg, John.   The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories.  Communications and Culture. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education, 1988.

"Drawing on semiotics, on debates in cultural theory, and on the work of Foucault and Althusser, John Tagg rejects the idea of photography as a record of reality and the notion of a documentary tradition, and traces a previously unexamined history that has profound implications... for the history and theory of photography."

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Revisiting Susan Sontag

• - February 9, 2023
• by Brigitte Ollier & Jonas Cuénin

The London-based Folio Society releases a new illustrated collector’s edition of Susan Sontag’s (1933–2004) On Photography , the survival manual of a generation in love with film photography, right next to the three other revered authors: Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin, and Gisèle Freund. 

Susan Sontag’s intriguing essays, first published by The New York Review of Books between 1973 and 1977, are rendered more accessible in this beautifully bound volume.

For the first time, On Photography is accompanied by twenty-two images—in addition to the one on the cover, featuring a dreamy woman dressed in fur photographed by Walker Evans, one of the icons of twentieth-century America. 

“It’s a simple, quiet image, and the human figure always draws in the viewer,” notes Mandy Kirkby, the publisher of this engaging book. While these photographs don’t affect the book’s well-crafted prose, their presence is an aid to the imagination, and helps to put a finger on the ever-growing visibility of the medium. 

Mia Fineman, curator of photography at the Metropolitan Museum of Art , who wrote the preface to Susan Sontag’s On Photography , talks to us about the publication.

What does Susan Sontag represent to you and your generation: is she a role model, a political activist, or an intellectual?  

I can’t pretend to speak for my generation; for me personally, Susan Sontag was all of these things: a renowned intellectual, a political activist, a role-model, but also a novelist, a director, and a filmmaker. She has been a hero of mine ever since I first read her work in college.

Is her book On Photography one reference books among many or the reference book? 

I don’t consider On Photography a reference work, since it’s not a book I would consult for factual or historical data. Rather, it is a book with powerful, inspiring writing, that contains personal reflections on photography and its prominent role in modern Western society.

Would you say that this book, in its intention, is close to Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes, to whom the translation of On Photography is dedicated? 

Like Barthes’s Camera Lucida , On Photography is one of the founding texts in twentieth-century continental photographic theory, which means that it is a very personal yet philosophical attempt to think about the photographic medium as a whole, rather than analyzing or critiquing individual photographs or photographers. 

In what way does On Photography remain relevant to you, given what photography is today, both as a recognized art form and a popular activity practiced by millions of amateurs with their smartphones? 

Susan Sontag was extraordinarily prescient about the evolution of the medium, in particular in her analysis of photography as a mode of consumption , which has become even more pronounced in the age of social media, as well as in her warnings about compassion fatigue resulting from the endless onslaught of images of war and atrocity. 

Is there anything in Susan Sontag’s work that strikes you as dated or anachronistic?

The earliest sections of the book address the idea of “photographic community” (of critics, photographers, academics, etc.) and what Susan Sontag saw as an excessive emphasis on legitimizing the medium as an art form. 

Although not as relevant today, when she wrote these essays in the 1970s, the question “Is photography an art?” was omnipresent. Susan Sontag thought it was a very boring question to ask about an incredibly rich and multifaceted medium.

Do you find it curious, for example, that Susan Sontag made little mention of women photographers, aside from Abbott and Arbus?

Not really. The photographic canon in the 1970s was heavily dominated by men, as were the books and exhibitions on which Sontag based her research, so it’s not surprising that there aren’t more women photographers in her essays.

However, she does discuss the work of Arbus, Abbott, Dorothea Lange , Lisette Model, and Julia Margaret Cameron, and there is an entire essay on Leni Riefenstahl that she wrote for The New York Review of Books , which was not included in the book.

This edition of On Photography is the first to include reproductions of photographs. How did you choose the photographs? 

I worked with the Folio Society to choose images that were either directly referenced in the text or similar enough to help illuminate the argument.

How did you imagine and write your preface? Did you have in mind “old” readers of Sontag or rather new audiences? 

I thought about readers who would be discovering the book for the first time, as well as those who were returning to it.

Do you think this edition will be better received in the world of photography? Was it, in some ways, ahead of its time in imagining photography?

This is a small, specialized edition of a classic text published half a century ago. I’m sure the reception will be totally different from what it was at the time of its original publication in 1978.

One last question, related to your work at the Met. You have been with the museum since 1997: what do you think is the most important change that has taken place in the photographic community: is it the confidence of collectors in the medium? the increase in photography sales and festivals? The editorial presence of photographic historians? The growing interest in the nineteenth century? the rise of women photographers?

All of these changes are quite relevant to the photographic community, but in my opinion, the most important change in photography over the past twenty years has been the rise of smartphones and social media.

Susan Sontag, On Photography , Preface by Mia Fineman. The Folio Society, £85.00, 224 pp. 

For a quick & light (under 4 oz.!) introduction to Susan Sontag, read: Sigrid Nunez, Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag, Riverhead Books, 2014, $17, 128pp. 

For Sontag’s other works, see her collected essays in the 2-volume Library of America edition .

Brigitte Ollier & Jonas Cuénin

Read More :  Book Advice: Technique and Theory in Documentary Photography

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• On Photography Summary

by Susan Sontag

These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.

Written by people who wish to remain anonymous

In On Photography , Susan Sontag discusses what she believes photography does to society in the modern day. Of course, this modern day was the 1970's, but many of the key elements described in the collection of essays still remain relevant. For the most part, she describes the relationship between photography and capitalism in society. She believes that photographs are an important commercial and industrial driver, and often exploit consumers.

One of the many examples discussed is propaganda during the Great Depression. While millions of farmers around the United States were in a state of deep poverty, the Farm Security Administration issued photographs of successful farmers and high crop yields. Obviously, this was far from fact, but it was simply used to show that times would get better soon - even though they didn't.

Among the artists of the 1970's, Sontag criticizes Andy Warhol , who she says dramatized the events of the country. She also says that Walt Whitman's poetry and essays made America look too much like a perfect society despite the fact that, compared to other countries, it is.

In conclusion, Sontag wraps up the argument that she believes photography has hurt the country, for the most part. She does admit that this was not the intended use of the camera, but says that the media spreading so many images at once makes people feel less of a need to do something. Because there are so many images widely available to the public of drastic events, people have become immune to them and no longer consider those events to be of urgency.

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On Photography Questions and Answers

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Study Guide for On Photography

On Photography study guide contains a biography of Susan Sontag, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About On Photography
• Character List

Wikipedia Entries for On Photography

• Introduction

On Photography

46 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

“In Plato’s Cave”

“America, Seen Through Photographs, Darkly”

“Melancholy Objects”

“The Heroism of Vision”

“Photographic Evangels”

“The Image-World”

“A Brief Anthology of Quotations”

Key Figures

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Summary and Study Guide

On Photography is a 1977 collection of seven essays by American scholar, activist, and philosopher Susan Sontag . The essays were published in the New York Review of Books from 1973 to 1977 before publication in a single volume. Sontag explores the history of photography and its relationship to reality, the fine arts, and sociopolitical power structures. Individual essays explore these various relationships between photography and the world through a different lens before the culminating exploration of “The Image World”—the network of photographic media that mediates people’s relationship with reality—and a curated collection of photographers’ quotes. Sontag works to prove that photography is, like language, a medium, and that it’s often used to reinforce societal norms and the status quo in an industrial, consumerist society.

The book won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism in 1977 and has shaped discourse on photography since its publication. It brings together disparate concepts of art and literary criticism, philosophy, and cultural studies to lay the groundwork for discussing photography and its wide-reaching implications in society. The essay collection explores several themes, including Consumerism and Contemporary Life , the relationship between Art and Power Dynamics , and how photography shapes Surveillance and the Nature of Reality .

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Content Warning: On Photography contains racially biased depictions of Chinese people, Orientalism, and demeaning language toward marginalized groups and identities.

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Sontag begins with “In Plato’s Cave,” which establishes her main premises and the theoretical foundation that runs through all the other essays. She explores photography through a comparison to Plato’s allegory of the cave, in which prisoners experience reality as a series of shadows cast on a wall. Like shadows, photographs overtake and supersede reality. Sontag posits that people compare everything to photographs and structure life as if always viewing the world through a camera lens. Sontag characterizes photography as a form of appropriation in that it allows photographers to take pieces of reality home with them. Cameras are tools of appropriation, exploitation, and intrusion into the lives of people who aren’t like the photographer. Sontag theorizes that this appropriation of reality and the idealization of the image has completely restructured society to prioritize surveillance and control through the use of images such as bureaucratic documents, CCTV, and more.

The second essay, “America, Seen Through Photographs, Darkly,” explores American photography’s obsession with kitsch, trash, and banal objects. Sontag relates current trends in photography and art back to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and his desire for people to see every speck of America as beautiful and relevant. Sontag calls this “euphoric humanism” and believes that this populist impulse leads to the appropriation of lives unlike those of the photographer. As an example, Sontag cites Diane Arbus , who made her fame from photographing marginalized people. Sontag believes that Whitman’s vision comes to fruition through photography in ironic ways that the poet couldn’t have foreseen. Sontag asserts that American photography is a form of colonization and tourism in the name of unifying the American experience.

“Melancholy Objects,” the third essay, examines the relationship between photographs as physical objects and the passage of time. Sontag believes that time makes photographs surreal, or hyper-real. She emphasizes that photographs capture a slice of time and keep it frozen, even while the photograph ages. This unique property of photographs allows families to be preserved as they were at one moment, even after family members age and die. Photographs shape people’s perspective on time by literally preserving slices of the past in ways that were impossible before photography. This relation to time leads to the desire to collect and catalogue the world around us, which feeds the American obsession with kitsch, banal objects, and outcasts. This strange relationship to time and impulse to catalogue leads back to Sontag’s idea of colonial tourists—photographers who colonize through the camera by capturing people, objects, and things foreign to their everyday life.

In the fourth essay, “The Heroism of Vision,” Sontag explores photographers’ own ideas about the power and purpose of their gaze as photo takers. Sontag believes that by the 1920s, photographers became “modern hero[es]” through their use of the camera because of society’s reorientation around the image. The valorization of the photographer led to questions of photography’s place in relationship to art. Photography entered into a reciprocal relationship with art, though many photographers disavowed the connection to maintain an aura of superiority to art.

“Photographic Evangels,” the fifth essay, examines the rhetoric that photographers use to insist on photography’s importance to the world and ingrain photography into everyday culture. Photography’s evangelizers approach the use of the camera as a higher-order intellectual activity of cataloguing the world, or as an intuitive and creative act that reveals more about the photographer than the subject. Sontag calls this the split between photography as art and photography as document. She breaks down the binarization of photography’s history, revealing that the two sides—artistic and scientific photography—are inseparable and have jointly reshaped art. Sontag believes that photography is a medium, like language, and not an art form in itself.

In the sixth essay, “The Image World,” the author zooms out to take a final look at photography’s effects on people’s perception of reality and its relationship to imagery . Sontag posits that photography has reoriented people to see the world as disjointed objects and experiences worthy or unworthy of photographing and recording. She argues that “reality” and its derivative, “image,” are concepts that shift and change within each culture over time. In an industrial capitalist society, Sontag believes that images supersede actual experiences of reality. The “Image World” becomes more real than reality, creating a market to sell endless entertainment and distractions from the unjust conditions of capitalist society, while the saturation of surveillance and images in everyday life makes population control easier than it was in eras before photography.

“A Brief Anthology of Quotations,” the final piece in the book, is a montage-style collection of various quotes and snippets on photography that Sontag curated from various figures, ranging from the inventors of photography to advertisements for cameras in the 20th century. Sontag uses these quotations to create an impressionistic portrait that shows how she formed her view of photography. The author took inspiration for this section from Walter Benjamin’s magnum opus The Arcades Project , an unfinished exploration of 19th-century Parisian life—and the effects of photography—that largely relies on montages of quotations.

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The origin of all things: Kyotographie 2024 – a photo essay

The 12 th annual Kyotographie photography festival features 13 exhibitions staged in striking locations across the Japanese city of Kyoto. Photographers from around the world submitted pictures on the theme of ‘source’

• The Kyotographie international photography festival runs until 12 May

S pring in Kyoto ushers in cherry blossom season, but it also marks the return of one of the biggest photo festivals in Asia. Kyotographie, now in its 12th year, fuses the past and present with its striking images and unique locations. The 13 exhibitions are staged in temples, galleries and traditional private homes across the Japanese city, showcasing the work of national and international photographers.

The festival is loosely centred on a theme – and this year the directors, Lucille Reyboz and Yusuke Nakanishi, asked participants to focus on the word “source” by delving into the essence of beginnings and the nexus of creation and discovery.

The Yamomami struggle. Photograph by Claudia Andujar

The source is the initiator, the origin of all things. It is the creation of life, a place where conflict arises or freedom is obtained; it is the space in which something is found, born or created. It is a struggle Claudia Andujar and the Yanomami shaman and leader Davi Kopenawa know too well. The Yanomami Struggle is the first retrospective exhibition in Japan by the Brazilian artist and activist Andujar with the Yanomami people of Brazil.

It is more than 50 years since she began photographing the Yanomami, the people of the Amazon rainforest near Brazil’s border with Venezuela, an initial encounter that changed their lives. Andujar’s work is not just a showcase of her photographic talent but, with Kopenawa accompanying the exhibition to Japan for the first time, it is a platform to bring the Yanomami’s message to a wider Asian audience.

The Yanomami Struggle. Photograph by Claudia Andujar

The first part of the exhibition features photographs taken by Andjuar in the 1970s, alongside artwork by the Yanomami people and words by Kopenawa. The second part narrates the continuing violence inflicted by non-Indigenous society on the Yanomami. The project is a platform for the Yamomani people to be seen and protected from ongoing threats. The exhibition, curated by Thyago Nogueira from São Paulo’s Instituto Moreira Salles, is a smaller version of one that has been touring the world since 2018.

The Yanomami Struggle, by Claudia Andujar, and artwork by the Yanomami people.

The Moroccan artist Yassine Alaoui Ismaili (Yoriyas) is showing new work made during his Kyotographie artist-in-residence programme for young Africans. The images from the Japanese city feature alongside his project Casablanca Not the Movie.

Children Transform the Sheep for Eid al-Adha into a Playground in Casablanca. Photograph by Yassine Alaoui Ismaili (Yoriyas)

Yoriyas gave up his career as a breakdancer and took up photography as a means of self-expression. His project Casablanca Not the Movie documents the streets of the city where he lives with candid shots and complex compositions. His work, which combines performance and photography, encourages us to focus on how we inhabit urban spaces. The exhibition’s clever use of display and Yoriyas’s experience with choreography force the viewer to see the work at unconventional angles. He says: “The camera frame is like a theatre stage. The people in the frame are my dancers. By moving the camera, I am choreographing my subjects without even knowing it. When an interesting movement catches my eye, I press the shutter. My training has taught me to immediately understand space, movement, connection and story. I photograph in the same way that I choreograph.”

The contrasts in Casablanca take many forms, including social, political, religious and chromatic. Photograph by Yoriyas

From Our Windows is a collaboration bringing together two important Japanese female photographers, both of whom shares aspects of their lives through photography, in a dialogue about different generations. The exhibition is supported by Women in Motion, which throws a spotlight on the talent of women in the arts in an attempt to reach gender equality in the field. Rinko Kawauchi, an internationally acclaimed photographer, chose to exhibit with Tokuko Ushioda who, at 83, continues to create vibrant new works. Kawauchi says of Ushioda: “I respect the fact that she has been active as a photographer since a time when it was difficult for women to advance in society, and that she is sincerely committed to engaging with the life that unfolds in front of her.” This exhibition features photographs taken by each of them of their families.

Photograph by Rinko Kawauchi.

Kawauchi’s two bodies of work, Cui Cui and As It Is, focus on family life. The first series is a family album relating to the death of her grandfather and the second showcases the three years after the birth of her child. Family, birth, death and daily life are threads through both bodies of work that help to create an emotional experience that transcends the generations.

Rinko Kawauchi and Tokuko Ushioda at the Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art

Kawauchi says: “My works will be exhibited alongside Ushioda. Each of the works from the two series are in a space that is the same size, located side by side. The works show the accumulation of time that we have spent. They are a record of the days we spent with our families, and they are also the result of facing ourselves. We hope to share with visitors what we have seen through the act of photography, which we have continued to do even though our generations are different, and to enjoy the fact that we are now living in the same era.”

Ushioda’s first solo exhibition features two series: the intimate My Husband and also Ice Box, a fixed-point observation of her own and friends’ refrigerators. Ushioda says: “I worked on that series [Ice Box] for around 20 years or so. Like collecting insects, I took photographs of refrigerators in houses here and there and in my own home, which eventually culminated in this body of work.”

Entries from Tokuko Ushida’s series Ice Box.

James Mollison’s ongoing project Where Children Sleep is on display at the Kyoto Art Centre with a clever display that turns each photograph into its own bedroom.

A child portrayed in Where Children Sleep, Nemis, Canada.

Featuring 35 children from 28 countries, the project encourages viewers to think about poverty, wealth, the climate emergency, gun violence, education, gender issues and refugee crises. Mollison says: “From the start, I didn’t want to think about needy children in the developing world, but rather something more inclusive, about children from all types of situations.” Featuring everything from a trailer in Kentucky during an opioid crisis and a football fan’s bedroom in Yokohama, Japan, to a tipi in Mongolia, the project offers an engrossing look at disparate lives.

From Where Children Sleep, Nirto, Somalia

Joshim, India. Photographs by James Mollison

Phosphor, Art & Fashion (1990-2023) is the first big retrospective exhibition devoted to the Dutch artist Viviane Sassen . It covers 30 years of works, including previously unseen photographs, and combines them with video installations, paintings and collages that showcase her taste for ambiguity and drama in a distinctive language of her own.

Eudocimus Ruber, from the series Of Mud and Lotus, 2017. Photograph by Viviane Sassen and Stevenson

The exhibition opens with self-portraits taken during Sassen’s time as a model. “I wanted to regain power over my own body. With a man behind the camera, a sort of tension always develops, which is often about eroticism, but usually about power,” she says. Sassen lived in Kenya as a child, and the series produced there and in South Africa are dreamlike, bold and enigmatic. She describes this period as her “years of magical thinking”. The staging of the exhibition in an old newspaper printing press contrasts with the light, shadows and bold, clashing colours of her work. The lack of natural light intensifies the flamboyant tones of the elaborately composed fashion work.

Dior Magazine (2021), and Milk, from the series Lexicon, 2006. Photographs by Viviane Sassen and Stevenson

Viviane Sassen’s immersive video installation at the Kyoto Shimbun B1F print plant. Photograph by Joanna Ruck

The source of and inspiration for Kyotographie can be traced to Lucien Clergue, the founder of Les Rencontres d’Arles, the first international photography festival, which took place in 1969. Arles, where Clergue grew up and lived all his life, was a canvas for his photography work in the 1950s. Shortly after the second world war, many Roma were freed from internment camps and came to Arles, where Clergue forged a close relationship with the community. Gypsy Tempo reveals the daily life of these families – their nomadic lifestyle, the role of religion and how music and dance are used to tell stories.

Draga in Polka-Dot Dress, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, 1957. Photographs by Lucien Clergue

Little Gypsy Girl in the Chapel, Cannet 1958

During this time, Clergue discovered, and then helped propel to fame, the Gypsy guitarist Manitas de Plata and his friend José Reyes. Manitas went on to become a famous musician in the 1960s who, together with Clergue, toured the world, including Japan.

Kyotographie 2024 was launched alongside its sister festival, Kyotophonie , an international music event, with performances by Los Graciosos, a band from Catalonia who play contemporary Gypsy music. Meanwhile, the sounds of De Plata can be heard by viewers of Clergue’s exhibition.

The Magic Circle, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, 1958, by Lucien Clergue.

Kyotographie 2024 runs until 12 May at venues across Kyoto, Japan.

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Essay on Photography

Photography is the art of capturing light with a camera, usually via a digital sensor or film, to create an image. The word “photography” comes from the Greek words “photos” meaning “light” and “graphos” meaning “drawing” or “writing.” It is a form of visual communication that has become an integral part of our daily lives.

Photography is an art form that involves capturing light with a camera to create a visual representation of a moment or scene. This art form has evolved significantly since its inception in the early 19th century and continues to evolve as technology advances.

One of the defining characteristics of photography is its ability to capture a moment in time. Unlike other art forms such as painting or sculpture, photography allows for a precise and exact representation of a moment. In photojournalism, photographers actively document events and news stories, creating a historical record of unfolding events.

Another unique aspect of photography is its ability to manipulate light and composition to create a desired effect. Through the use of various camera settings and techniques, such as depth of field and exposure, photographers can create dramatic and expressive images. The use of light can also be used to create a sense of mood or atmosphere in an image, drawing the viewer in and evoking a response.

In addition to capturing moments and manipulating light, photography also has the power to tell a story. Through the use of composition and framing, photographers can create images that convey a message or convey emotion. This can be seen in documentary photography, where photographers document social or political issues, raising awareness and sparking conversation.

The evolution of technology has also had a significant impact on photography. The introduction of digital cameras has made photography more accessible and allows for instant feedback and editing. This has opened up the art form to a wider audience and has led to the creation of new forms of photography such as smartphone photography.

Photography allows us to freeze a moment in time and preserve it for future generations. It allows us to capture the beauty of a sunset, the innocence of a child’s smile, or the majesty of a mountain landscape. Photography captures and documents important events like weddings, birthdays, and graduations, allowing us to reminisce and cherish those memories for years to come.

Photography not only preserves memories but also tells stories and conveys messages. A skilled photographer can use composition, lighting, and other techniques to create an image that captures the essence of a subject and evokes emotion in the viewer. In photojournalism, the utilization of photographs to document and draw attention to crucial events and global issues can be particularly powerful.

Since Joseph Nicéphore Niépce created the first permanent photograph in 1826, modern photography has traversed a remarkable journey. With the advent of digital technology, photography has become more accessible than ever before. Anyone with a smartphone can take a photo and share it with the world in an instant. This has led to the rise of social media, where millions of people share their photos every day.

However, with the ease of taking and sharing photos comes the challenge of standing out in a crowded field. To be a successful photographer, one must have a unique vision and the technical skills to bring that vision to life. This often requires learning about composition, lighting, and post-processing techniques, as well as mastering the use of a camera and other equipment.

Photography is a powerful art form that allows us to capture and preserve memories, tell stories, and convey messages. It has become an integral part of our daily lives, and with the rise of digital technology, it has become more accessible than ever before. Unlock a world of beauty and creativity through the lens of a camera, whether you’re a professional photographer or an avid photo enthusiast. Discover the wonders that await as you capture moments and unleash your artistic vision.

In conclusion, photography is a unique and powerful art form that captures moments, manipulates light, tells stories, and continues to evolve with technology. Its ability to document and communicate has made it a valuable tool for capturing and sharing the world around us.

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Columbia University in the City of New York

Miriam and ira d. wallach art gallery.

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Moscow: City, Spectacle, Capital of Photography

April 30–june 21, 2003.

Moscow: City, Spectacle, Capital of Photography , an exhibition of 20th-century photographs of Moscow, opens at Columbia University's Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery on Wednesday, April 30, 2003 and remains on display through Saturday, June 21, 2003.

Moscow has been a powerful magnet for many Russian photographers of the 20th century. Moscow: City, Spectacle, Capital of Photography presents the work of 31 photographers, whose images have defined the visual experience of Moscow from the 1920s to the present. Diverse in form and strategy, the 90 photographs chosen for the exhibition trace the history of Russian documentary photography and offer insight into individual practices. From Aleksandr Rodchenko's constructivist visions and Evgenii Khaldei's humanist landscapes to Igor Moukhin's scenes of urban spectacle and alienation in the works of Russia's key 20th-century photographers, Moscow ventures beyond the expected image as a site of famous landmarks, architectural treasures and dramatic lifestyles.

Early 20th-century photographers Boris Ignatovich and Arkadii Shaikhet saw themselves in the vanguard of an emerging mass-media culture, defining with their cameras the visual experience of Soviet modernity. For nearly 70 years, Soviet photography was assigned the duty of maintaining the ideological rigidity of the Soviet State. Yet, as examples of the work of Iakov Khalip, Anatolii Egorov, Mikhail Savin, and Mark Markov-Grinberg show, Soviet photographic practices were much more complex than has been previously acknowledged. The works of these photographers remain intensely compelling to a modernist eye.

Contemporary Russian photographers, such as Lev Melikhov, Valerii Stigneev and Sergei Leontiev, engage with the legacy of the Soviet documentary photography. But for them the documentary is a complex and multivalent genre, which incorporates subjectivity, ambiguity and reflexivity and comments on social and cultural issues without losing sight of the position from which that commentary is made. In the recent photographs by Vladimir Kupriyanov, Igor Moukhin, Anna Gorunova and Pakito Infante, the "real" space of Moscow is replaced by an imaginary and optical spaces of virtuality.

The works in the exhibition are on loan from Moscow's Cultural Center Dom, and many are being shown outside Russia for the first time. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Wallach Art Gallery is publishing an illustrated catalogue with a scholarly essay by the exhibition curator, Nadia Michoustina, a Ph.D. candidate in Columbia University's Department of Slavic Languages. The essay presents a nuanced history of Russian photography of the 20th century, and contributes to an interpretation of extraordinary images.

Importance of Forensic Photography

This essay about the role of a crime scene photographer discusses the critical and detailed work involved in documenting crime scenes for investigative and legal purposes. Crime scene photographers capture comprehensive images that show both overall views and specific details of the scene, which are crucial for investigations and courtroom presentations. These professionals coordinate closely with law enforcement and forensic teams to ensure evidence is not disturbed during the photographic process. Their work requires not only photographic skill but also a strong understanding of forensic science and legal requirements. The essay highlights the importance of their role in maintaining the integrity of criminal investigations and the justice system, emphasizing the blend of technical expertise and emotional resilience needed to perform this job effectively.

How it works

An enigmatic figure, the crime scene photographer, though often overlooked, occupies a pivotal role within the realms of law enforcement and criminal justice. Their primary mandate entails the meticulous documentation of every aspect of a crime scene through the medium of photography, furnishing an objective and impartial record that may prove indispensable in subsequent legal proceedings.

At the heart of their task lies the imperative to capture detailed and exhaustive images that faithfully portray the crime scene in its unaltered state.

This entails photographing all tangible evidence, ranging from weaponry and bloodstains to any objects that might provide insight into the commission of the crime or the sequence of events. Additionally, they capture panoramic vistas of the entire scene, providing context and scale, as well as focused images that highlight specific details and potential clues.

Yet, these photographs serve a multitude of functions beyond mere documentation. Primarily, they serve as aids in the investigative process, enabling detectives and forensic experts to revisit the scene long after its physical state has been altered. The images must be sharp, meticulously composed, and sufficiently detailed to enable forensic analysts to discern subtleties that might elude initial observation.

Moreover, crime scene photographs assume critical importance in the courtroom, serving as evidentiary support or challenges to testimonies. The precision and clarity of these photographs facilitate a deeper understanding of the spatial dynamics of the crime scene and the interplay between various pieces of evidence. Consequently, crime scene photographers must possess not only photographic expertise but also a keen understanding of what details hold legal significance and how to present them effectively.

The work of a crime scene photographer commences upon their arrival at the scene, where they liaise with law enforcement and forensic experts. This collaboration ensures that the photographer navigates the scene without compromising evidence while capturing all requisite angles and details. A systematic approach is imperative, often entailing an outward-inward progression to prevent contamination. Each photograph is accompanied by scale markers and supplemented by written annotations detailing camera settings, scene conditions, and precise shot locations.

In terms of equipment, crime scene photographers utilize high-end cameras equipped with various lenses suited for different types of shots, from wide-angle lenses capturing entire rooms to macro lenses for close-up work. Lighting equipment is also essential, particularly in poorly lit environments, necessitating careful management to avoid distorting evidence.

To excel in this role, a crime scene photographer must possess a robust understanding of photographic principles, forensic science, and the legal framework. They must also exhibit meticulous attention to detail and maintain professionalism and impartiality despite the often grim nature of their work. This role demands a unique blend of technical expertise and emotional resilience, as the photographer serves as both an objective recorder of facts and a sensitive observer of the circumstances they document.

Ultimately, the contributions of the crime scene photographer are invaluable, bridging the gap between the crime as it occurred and its examination by the courts. This not only aids in holding perpetrators accountable but also ensures that justice is administered with integrity and accuracy, grounded in tangible evidence rather than speculation. Thus, the role is not merely technical but foundational to the integrity of criminal investigations and the justice system as a whole.

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Video Shows Moment Man Set Himself on Fire Outside Trump Trial in New York, After Throwing Flyers

V ideos and photos showed the moment that an unidentified man set himself on fire outside the Manhattan courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial.

You can see some of the videos and photos throughout this article, but be forewarned that they are graphic and very disturbing. The man’s name has not been confirmed by authorities.

CNN confirmed with “two law enforcement sources” that the man “lit himself on fire outside of the courthouse” where the Trump trial is unfolding.

The motive is not clear, including whether his actions had anything to do with the Trump trial, although the man threw flyers in the air and left behind a manifesto, according to The New York Post. A witness told PIX11 that the man “made statements of a political nature” before setting himself on fire. It was not clear what they were.

According to the New York Post, the flyers linked to a Substack page that said, “I have set myself on fire outside the Trump Trial.”

The New York Post reported that left “a rambling, incoherent 2,648-word manifesto, a man who identified himself as an investigative researcher, Max Azzarello” and said the self-immolation was an “extreme act of protest” over a “totalitarian con” and impending “apocalyptic fascist world coup.”

The man is in critical condition, according to PIX11.

Here’s what you need to know:

The Man Threw Flyers in the Air That Said, ‘NYU is a Mob Front,’ Reports Say

According to CNN, the man “walked into the park across the street from the courthouse, throwing flyers into the air.” Again, CNN cited a “senior law enforcement official” the network did not name.

The man then “pulled something out of a backpack,” CNN reported, and “lit himself on fire.”

According to CNN, some of the flyers contained the words “NYU is a mob front” and contained accusations against the university.

The incident is reminiscent of the death of Aaron Bushnell, the San Antonio, Texas, U.S. Air Force airman who set himself on fire on February 25 outside the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C., and later died from his injuries. Bushnell shouted “Free Palestine” before setting himself on fire while on streaming video.

A Person Tried to Put the Fire Out With a Suit Jacket, Reports Say

https://twitter.com/simonateba/status/1781379969630814523

According to The Hill, bystanders tried to put the fire out. One person tried to “pat down the fire with a suit jacket, before another individual with a fire extinguisher put out the fire that way,” the Hill reported.

A video showed that moment as a man ran up with a suit jacket while the man lay twitching on the ground in the fire.

A witness told PIX11 News “they were standing next to a man when he poured a flammable liquid on himself, told her to stand back, and then lit himself on fire.”

Trump was made aware of the incident after it occurred, ABC News reported, citing a source, adding that the former president was inside the courthouse where a jury was selected.

The New York Post reported that the incident occurred around 1:30 p.m., right as Trump’s jury was selected.

READ NEXT: Maxwell Anderson, Milwaukee Man Accused of Dismembering College Student.

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The post Video Shows Moment Man Set Himself on Fire Outside Trump Trial in New York, After Throwing Flyers appeared first on Heavy.com .

Photo Essay: Portlanders Young and Old Celebrate Earth Day With Making Earth Cool

Under the pomp and ceremony of a costume parade on a beautiful spring day lay a deep reservoir of disquiet for what the future might hold..

On Saturday, a parade of Portlanders marched from Sunnyside Environmental School through quiet inner Eastside residential blocks, celebrating Earth Day with the pageantry of handmade costumes and musical accompaniment from Portland’s own Unpresidented Brass Band.

Led by a decommissioned fire engine, the procession of approximately 200 people—most dressed as animals and plants—drew neighbors and diners out to watch the passing spectacle.

The event was organized by climate crisis-focused art collective Making Earth Cool , Portland Youth Climate Strike, Sunnyside Environmental School, and Extinction Rebellion PDX (a local chapter of the global nonviolent civil disobedience movement), among others.

At the parade Angela McIlvain, Mel Shea, and Nora Colie—wearing their respective ensembles as a globe with sunglasses "Earthy," a yellow flower "Dandy," and a pink wildflower "Clover"—emphasized the importance of this event being a multigenerational gathering and celebration. Under the pomp and ceremony of families in costumes and the communal celebration of Earth on a beautiful spring day, lies a deep reservoir of disquiet for what the future might hold.

“The youth are going to experience a lot more climate change than we have,” Shea told the  Mercury . “There is an anxiousness to it, and we hope to help people not feel alone.”

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Breaking news, who is the self-described ‘investigative researcher’ max azzarello who set self on fire outside trump trial after spewing conspiracy theories.

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The Florida man who lit himself on fire outside the Manhattan courthouse where former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial was unfolding Friday is a self-described “investigative researcher” who appeared to become more erratic over the last year and spewed conspiracy theories about the “elites” in a lengthy manifesto.

Max Azzarello, 37, of St. Augustine, Fla., tossed a stack of pamphlets into the air, which included links to a Substack newsletter apparently authored by the self-immolator called “The Ponzi Papers” moments before he doused himself in gasoline and set himself ablaze in Collect Pond Park.

At the top of the site is an article with the headline “I have set myself on fire outside of the Trump Trial,” followed by a rambling manifesto riddled with conspiracy theories on everything from cryptocurrency and Hollywood actors to COVID and former President Bill Clinton.

“My name is Max Azzarello , and I am an investigative researcher who has set himself on fire outside of the Trump trial in Manhattan,” the nearly 2,700-word posting begins.

“This extreme act of protest is to draw attention to an urgent and important discovery: We are victims of a totalitarian con, and our own government (along with many of their allies) is about to hit us with an apocalyptic fascist world coup.”

He also mentioned The Simpsons, the bank failures in 2023 and high-profile businessmen including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk . 

He claimed both Republicans and Democrats have bombarded the public with different existential crises to present a doomsday scenario.

Azzarello claimed “elites” have peddled fear in a bid to “gobble up all the wealth they could and then yank the rug out from under us so they could pivot to a hellish fascist dystopia.”

Police said he made the trip up to the Big Apple sometime earlier this week, and his family had been unaware he had traveled to the city.

He was pictured outside the Lower Manhattan courthouse at 100 Centre St. just on Thursday, holding up a sign that said “Trump is with Biden and they’re about to fascist coup us.”

“Biggest scoop of your life or your money back!” he shouted at a group of reporters gathered there,  telling The New York Times  he had come over from Washington Square Park because he thought more people would be outside the courthouse due to the cold.

“Trump’s in on it,”Azzarello told the Times on Thursday, saying his beliefs were influenced by his digging into Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist and big political donor. 

“It’s a secret kleptocracy, and it can only lead to an apocalyptic fascist coup.”

A 2017 blog post by the nonprofit Strong Towns, which has since been taken offline, features Max Azzarello and announces him as their new growth manager.

In his blurb, Azzarello alludes to his “childhood town” as a “charming, friendly, eclectic community in Long Island, New York.”

The civic engagement-focused organization says Azzarello’s “passions” include “chess, creative writing, and Medieval Scandinavian poetry.”

Azzarello appeared to host a podcast with another person dedicated to actress Laura Dern called “Dern After Reading Podcast” dating back to early 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic engulfed the United States.

His LinkedIn profile picture shows him posing with Bill Clinton, whom he sued last year along with 100 other influential defendants in a conspiracy theory-tinged case that was tossed out last October when he failed to follow up with required court filings.

Other defendants named in the 2023 suit in Manhattan federal court included Mark Cuban , Richard Branson, the country of Saudi Arabia, and Texas billionaire and 1992 Independent presidential candidate Ross Perot, who died in 2019. 

The meandering case — filed by Azzarello, without a lawyer — alleged “an elaborate network of Ponzi schemes” dating back to the 1990s and continuing through 2023.

At an NYPD press conference held shortly after Azzarello was stretchered into an ambulance, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny called the incident “propaganda”-based. 

“We’re looking through his social media and what he did online prior and it does appear he posted something online prior to this incident,” Kenny said.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry added: “This wasn’t targeting any particular person, right now we’re labeling it as a conspiracy theorist, the investigation will continue.” 

Additional reporting by Priscilla DeGregory, Jennie Taer and David Propper

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