To be honest, Barthes and Sontag will be no good to you if you're after historical writing on photography. I find it strange that the humanities can't see past two books written in 1979/80 (Nicholas is right about Flusser's book, it is wonderful - but it was written in 1983). As ontologies they're also terribly outdated and fixated on the modernist history predicated on the NYMoMA/Paris axis. That's also something of a problem with Gernsheim, Newhall et al. However, the last two will at least give you a half-decent survey of the photography's hegemonic history.
Better 'critical histories' would be Freund's or Bourdieu's, I think, whilst there are two excellent primers edited by Liz Wells (Photography: a critical introduction and The Photography Reader).
I don't know much about the history of Indonesian photography, but you might also like Pinney/Peterson ed. Photography's Other Histories, and Mary Warner Marien's Photography: A Cultural History.
However, for first class historical background I'd recommend looking through back issues of the journal History of Photography - which has run regular articles on Pacific and Asian photography history for a few years now. It may require some trawling through the 1990s and 1980s.
regards
Damian Sutton
*
*
Film-Philosophy Email Discussion Salon.
After hitting 'reply' please always delete the text of the message you are replying to.
To leave, send the message: leave film-philosophy to: [log in to unmask]
For help email: [log in to unmask], not the salon.
**
|