David Campany On Photographs

An exploration of photography in 120 photographs.

In On Photographs, curator and writer David Campany presents an exploration of photography in 120 photographs. Proceeding not by chronology or genre or photographer, Campany's eclectic selection unfolds according to its own logic. We see work by Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Eggleston, Helen Levitt, Garry Winogrand, Yves Louise Lawler, Andreas Gursky, and Rineke Dijkstra. There is fashion photography by William Klein, one of Vivian Maier's contact sheets, and a carefully staged scene by Gregory Crewdson, as well as images culled from magazines and advertisements. Each of the 120 photographs is accompanied by Campany's lucid and incisive commentary, considering the history of that image and its creator, interpreting its content and meaning, and connecting and contextualizing it with visual culture. Image by image, we absorb and appreciate Campany's complex yet playful take on photography and its history.

The title, On Photographs, alludes to Susan Sontag's influential and groundbreaking On Photography. As an undergraduate, Campany met Sontag and questioned her assessment of photography without including specific photographs. Sontag suggested that someday Campany could write his own book on the subject, titled On Photographs. Now he has.

習於忽略的視覺文化盛行，當代頂尖策展人兼作家 David Campany 藉由《On Photographs》一書介紹攝影作品及其含義，為讀者重新打開雙眼，養成嶄新的攝影觀點。

關於照片的反應是如何形塑的？我們歸因於照片的意義，實際上從何而來？攝影師的意圖會對觀者的解讀帶來多大的影響？書中的 120 張照片有熟悉也有驚喜，Campany 不僅證明觀看照片時的思考途徑與事後領會同等重要，也主張照片的意義並不固定，永遠存在重新詮釋的可能性。

Campany 拒絕採用編年慣例，也避開攝影媒介史傳統論述中被賦予經典地位的作品，選擇以專業眼光從各種領域精挑細選藝術照、電影劇照、紀實攝影、時尚採編圖文和廣告等多樣化的攝影實踐。本書除了為攝影史提供趣味橫生的新穎觀點，亦將無名攝影師與攝影先驅、20 世紀的代表天才和當代職業攝影師的作品並肩登場，並附上 Campany 親自為每張照片撰寫的清晰評述，用恰到好處的客觀論調，盡力引導讀者主動解讀和理解影像。《星期日泰晤士報》將本書選為 2020 年度最佳藝術書籍，並稱讚其「剖析攝影世界心照不宣的種種假設，是一本發人深省的傑出研究著作」。

David Campany 於 1967 年生於英國，目前以倫敦為據點擔任策展人、作家和教育工作者，曾榮獲國際攝影中心無限攝影獎、克拉斯納克勞斯圖書獎等。Campany 已出版《Walker Evans: The Magazine Work》、《The Open Road: Photography and the American Road Trip and A Handful of Dust》等十餘本書，經常配合出書舉辦個展，也負責為紐約現代藝術博物館 (MoMA)、英國泰特現代藝術館、法國的龐畢度中心等機構策劃攝影展，其中也包括臺灣的國家攝影文化中心開幕展「塵與時：從宇宙到居所」。