Photography: Theoretical Snapshots offers exciting perspectives on photography theory today from some of the world's leading critics and theorists. It introduces new means of looking at photographs, and addresses the question of photography history, revisiting the work of some of the most influential theorists such as Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin, and the October group.

J. J. Long is Professor of German at Durham University. He is the author of The Novels of Thomas Bernhard and of W. G. Sebald: Image, Archive, Modernity, and has published widely on German literature and photography. He was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2005.

Andrea Noble is Professor of Latin American Studies at Durham University, author of Mexican National Cinema and co-editor of Phototextualities: Intersections of Photography and Narrative.

Edward Welch is Senior Lecturer in French at Durham University, and author of François Mauriac: The Making of an Intellectual. His research interests include post-war French visual culture and documentary photography, and he is a regular contributor to Source photography journal.

List of Figures Introduction A Small History of Photography Studies Edward Welch and J. J. Long 1. Mindless Photography John Tagg 2. Thinking Photography beyond the Visual? Elizabeth Edwards 3. On Snapshot Photography: Rethinking Photographic Power In Public And Private Spheres Catherine Zuromskis 4. Family Photography and the Global Drama of Human Rights Andrea Noble 5. Dreams of Ordinary Life: Cartes-De-Visite and the Bourgeois Imagination Geoffrey Batchen 6. Race and Reproduction in Camera Lucida Shawn Michelle Smith 7. Benjamin, Atget, and the 'Readymade' Politics of Postmodern Photography Studies Kelly Dennis 8. Being Exposed: Thinking Photography and Community in Spencer Tunick's Naked World Through the Lens of Jean-Luc Nancy Louis Kaplan 9. 'And in This Fairy World of Labour See A Type Of What The Actual World Should Be': Plato's Dilemma Donald Preziosi Notes on Contributors Bibliography Index