Each Wild Idea: Writing, Photography, History

In Each Wild Idea, Geoffrey Batchen explores a wide range of photographic subjects,from the timing of the medium's invention to the various implications of cyberculture. Along the way, he reflects on contemporary art photography, the role of the vernacular in photography's history, and the Australianness of Australian photography.The essays all focus on a consideration of specific photographs — from a humble combination of baby photos and bronzed booties to a masterwork by Alfred Stieglitz. Although Batchen views each photograph within the context of broader social and political forces, he also engages its own distinctive formal attributes. In short, he sees photography as something that is simultaneously material and cultural. In an effort to evoke the lived experience of history, he frequently relies on sheer description as the mode of analysis,insisting that we look right at — rather than beyond — the photograph being discussed. A constant theme throughout the book is the question of photography's past, present, and future identity.

Essays on photography and the medium's history and evolving identity.

Publishers Weekly

That English photographic pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot and computer inventor Charles Babbage moved in the same circles is just one of the provocative factoids marshaled by University of New Mexico art and art history professor Batchen (Burning with Desire: The Conception of Photography) in this collection of nine essays tracing photography's prehistory and mapping its digital future. Particularly strong is Batchen's survey of the vernacular tradition of his native Australia, which offers sharp readings of several of the book's 34 b&w photos and illustrations, analyzing how they are used and interpreted by Australian institutions in ways resonant with the charged racial and political curatorial climate of North America. A piece on the history of photography as a genre lays to rest forever any notion of a single inventor of the medium, challenging the relevance of any canonical "great names" approach to an activity so thoroughly woven into the fabric of everyday life. As is inevitable with a book occasioned by a number of different professional circumstances, some of the essays will interest some readers more than others, and there is some repetition, but the ideas and motifs that Batchen returns to as to what constitutes a photograph, what photography's full set of origins are, who gets included and excluded from its canon, and how digital imaging is changing the medium are so richly explored that one hardly feels cause for complaint. Sontag and Barthes are usually invoked in praise of books on photography, but Batchen's daunting immersion in his subject and his theoretical acumen leave them both behind. (Apr.) Forecast: This book is pitched at the arts criticism community, but will be picked up by many practicing artists, photographers, academics and museum professionals as well. University libraries where an arts M.F.A., photography B.F.A. or art history degree are offered may find it turning up on reserve lists. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Geoffrey Batchen is Professor of the History of Photography and Contemporary Art at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He is the author of Burning with Desire: The Conceptions of Photography (1999) and Each Wild Idea: Writing, Photography, History (2002), both published by the MIT Press.