Goldberg, Vicki - Light Matters. Writings on Photography

"Goldberg, one of the leading voices in the field of photography criticism, is well known for her cogent and perceptive writing, which is regularly featured in such national publications as the 'New York Times', 'American Photographer', and 'Vanity Fair'. Aperture’s 'Light Matters' gathers for the first time a selection of this remarkable author’s essays and criticism, culled from her writings published over the past twenty-five years.

G.’s take on photography is both insightful and encompassing: her subjects range from pop imagery to war journalism, from photo-booth portraits to mani-pulated digital imagery, from the 'boredom' of voyeurism to the great pre-pon-derance of tragic photographs in the news. She brings new light to the work of the medium’s 'old masters', among them Walker Evans, Lotte Jacobi, and Lartigue, writing with equal acuity about contemporary trailblazers such as Bill Viola, Daido Moriyama, and Bastienne Schmidt. G. also tackles provocative larger issues facing the medium, such as the potentially “transgressive” nature of photographs, and the camera’s powerful role in a culture of commodification.

Dismissing clichés and deftly negotiating the many diverging paths photo-graphy now follows, G. demonstrates how to consider not just photographic images themselves, but their impact, and the meaning of that impact. 'Light Matters' showcases a writer of great intelligence, wit, and insight, whose understanding of this multifarious and evolving medium is unsurpassed. G. is the author of 'The Power of Photography: How Photographs Changed Our Lives' (1991), and editor of 'Photography in Print: Writings from 1816 to the Present' (1981). In 1997 she was the recipient of the ICP’s prestigious 'Infinity Award'. G. writes on photography and the arts for the 'New York Times', 'Vanity Fair', 'American Photo0' and other publications." (publisher)