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At the Edge of Sight: Photography and the Unseen
The advent of photography revolutionized perception, making visible what was once impossible to see with the human eye. In At the Edge of Sight , Shawn Michelle Smith engages these dynamics of seeing and not seeing, focusing attention as much on absence as presence, on the invisible as the visible. Exploring the limits of photography and vision, she What fails to register photographically, and what remains beyond the frame? What is hidden by design, and what is obscured by cultural blindness? Smith studies manifestations of photography's brush with the unseen in her own photographic work and across the wide-ranging images of early American photographers, including F. Holland Day, Eadweard Muybridge, Andrew J. Russell, Chansonetta Stanley Emmons, and Augustus Washington. She concludes by showing how concerns raised in the nineteenth century remain pertinent today in the photographs of Abu Ghraib. Ultimately, Smith explores the capacity of photography to reveal what remains beyond the edge of sight.
- GenresPhotographyAcademicArt
312 pages, Paperback
First published October 14, 2013
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February 16, 2015
"Today a proliferation of images overwhelms the senses. There is too much to see - we are increasingly aware of all that is visible that we don't have the time or energy or interest to look at. In the 180-odd years since its invention, photography has come to produce its own vast realm of the unseen. Despite radical transformations, photography remains a technology of revelation and obfuscation. It makes the invisible visible, showing us what we can't otherwise see, and at the same time demonstrating how much we don't ordinarily see [...] Occasionally, however, the weight of what has been obscured, or culturally repressed, pierces the visible world, ushering forth the invisible into sight" (215).
As with Smith's other critical works that interrogate cultural constructions of race by closely examining the art of photography, this book is smart and interesting and makes me think more carefully about how I view photographs - whether from the 19th century or the past five years. Unlike other scholars, Smith does not seem to recycle much material from her other books, making this another inventive and worthwhile read. I believe she is successful in "captur[ing] the uncanny sense of living in a world unseen that photography impresses upon us" (19). I appreciate her take on Barthes, as well as introducing me to the work of F. Holland Day (hello nineteenth century hubris!), Chansonetta Stanley Emmons (creating a visual mythology of early twentieth century America) and William H. Mumler (spirit photography is fascinating). I also enjoyed the integration of her own art at the beginning of each chapter.
As with Smith's other critical works that interrogate cultural constructions of race by closely examining the art of photography, this book is smart and interesting and makes me think more carefully about how I view photographs - whether from the 19th century or the past five years. Unlike other scholars, Smith does not seem to recycle much material from her other books, making this another inventive and worthwhile read. I believe she is successful in "captur[ing] the uncanny sense of living in a world unseen that photography impresses upon us" (19). I appreciate her take on Barthes, as well as introducing me to the work of F. Holland Day (hello nineteenth century hubris!), Chansonetta Stanley Emmons (creating a visual mythology of early twentieth century America) and William H. Mumler (spirit photography is fascinating). I also enjoyed the integration of her own art at the beginning of each chapter.
Displaying 1 of 1 review