Daguerreotypes: Fugitive Subjects, Contemporary Objects - Tapa dura

"Saltzman's wide-ranging study offers up an exhilarating conceptual journey through the terrain of the photographic imagination, where durational time collides with retrospection and identity confronts loss. In this surprising concatenation of objects and practices, Saltzman deftly unfurls an unexpected and wholly original narrative that reveals the psychological functions and cultural fictions of mechanical representation in the digital age."--Sabine T. Kriebel, University College Cork "Saltzman masterfully moves between historic precedents and photography's contemporary manifestations, and, through subtle twists, demonstrates how these phenomena frequently exist as two sides of the same coin. . . . [Her] erudite and eloquent writing transports the reader through a gamut of fascinating, sometimes surprising, and always incisive examples, which challenge conventional photographic thinking in ways that respond more astutely to contemporary realities as well as historical enigmas."--History of Photography "Saltzman's monograph presents an interesting and nuanced addition to the work on memory and identity. . .a book that rushes to no easy conclusions or blunt-edged arguments, but is all the better for that."--European Journal of American Culture "Daguerreotypes is a superbly insightful investigation that stands on the cutting edge of photography studies. By discussing photography's referentiality as a 'vestigial idea' put to work in text, drawing, and video, these pages are free to explore novel concerns with the medium overlooked in our traditional focus on documentary. Saltzman's case studies correspondingly enunciate an alternative history and critique of photography defined not by truth, reason, and perfect identity with reality, but rather narrative, emotion, fantasy, and fiction. This inventive approach offers a significant contribution to discussions of the medium."--Andr s Zervig n, Rutgers University "Lisa Saltzman's Daguerreotypes: Fugitive Subjects, Contemporary Objects distinguishes itself from most theories of photography, both in content and approach, via a lucid analysis that considers the characteristics of photography less as unique to one medium than as qualities that migrate. . . . Daguerreotypes will certainly be influential in the field of recent research on phenomena of transmediality, intermediality, and media crossing. Although it avoids these terms, it provides a stimulating overview on contemporary art practices that reject any fixed definition of media." --CAA Reviews "Gliding through a breathtaking range of examples in film, photography, literature, and the graphic novel that resist singular interpretations, Saltzman probes her fascination with photography through unexpected pairings from seemingly unrelated works like Blade Runner, The Return of Martin Guerre, and Austerlitz, and artists such as Gregory Crewdson, Cindy Sherman, An-My L , and Gillian Wearing, among others. While doing so, she provides a stimulating conceptual journey to reimagine the lasting power of the image while celebrating the fictions photography has always embraced. . . . Recommended." --Choice "Saltzman's elegant, easy prose and lovely imagery make for a genuinely engaging text, and her topic--the legacy of daguerreotypical thinking in contemporary art--is both richly layered in history and fresh as a new coat of paint. Original, clever, and convincingly argued, Daguerreotypes is a serious intervention into the history of contemporary art."--Jane Blocker, University of Minnesota

In the digital age, photography confronts its future under the competing signs of ubiquity and obsolescence. While technology allows amateurs and experts alike to create high-quality photographs, new electronic formats have severed the photochemical link between image and subject. At the same time, cinematic, staged, or digitally enhanced art styles stretch the concept of photography and raise questions about its truth value. Despite this ambiguity, photography remains a stubbornly substantive form of evidence. Referenced by artists, filmmakers, and writers as a powerful emblem of truth, photography has found its home in other media at the moment of its own material demise. By examining the medium as articulated in literature, film, and the graphic novel, Daguerreotypes demonstrates how photography secures identity for figures with an unstable sense of self. From Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, W. G. Sebald's Austerlitz to Alison Bechdel's Fun Home - we find traces of these "fugitive subjects" throughout contemporary culture. Ultimately, Daguerreotypes reveals how the photograph has inspired a range of modern artistic and critical practices.