Includes bibliographical references (p. 230-232) and index.

In a series of brilliant discussions of major themes and genres, Graham Clarke gives a clear and incisive account of the photograph's historical development, and elucidates the insights of the most interesting thinkers on the subject such as Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag. At the heart of this book is his innovative examination of the main subject areas---landscape, the city, portraiture, the body, and documentary reportage---and his detailed analysis of exemplary images in terms of their cultural and ideological contexts.