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Vilém Flusser
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Towards a Philosophy of Photography Kindle Edition

by Vilém Flusser (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 113 ratings
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Media philosopher Vilém Flusser proposed a revolutionary new way of thinking about photography. An analysis of the medium in terms of aesthetics, science and politics provided him with new ways of understanding both the cultural crises of the past and the new social forms nascent within them. Flusser showed how the transformation of textual into visual culture (from the linearity of history into the two-dimensionality of magic) and of industrial into post-industrial society (from work into leisure) went hand in hand, and how photography allows us to read and interpret these changes with particular clarity.
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  1. ISBN-13
    978-1861890764
  2. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  3. Publisher
    Reaktion Books
  4. Publication date
    March 28, 2013
  5. Language
    English
  6. File size
    226 KB
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

As both an art medium and a way to record events, photography has become ubiquitous in our increasingly image-driven culture since its invention in the early 1800s. These two interesting books take a serious academic look at how photography has influenced culture. Prague-born philosopher Flusser (1920-91) concerned himself with design, communication, and language. His illuminating essays, originally published in German in 1983, are offered in English for the first time. Flusser describes a world fundamentally changed by the invention of the "technical image" and the mechanisms that support and define industrialized modern culture. He argues that whereas ideas were previously interpreted by written account, the invention of photography allows the creation of images (ideas) taken at face value as truth, not interpretation that can be endlessly replicated and spread worldwide. His essays identify players in this model (his lexicon includes the Apparatus, the Functionary, and the Technical Image) and warn of rising illiteracy owing to an uncritical faith in photography's "reality." Flusser does not speak of specific photographs or images but of the larger forces at work in the increasingly technical and automated world. Unlike Flusser, Batchen (art and art history, Univ. of New Mexico) delves intricately into individual works to explicate his thoughts, digging into such topics as the invention of photography, the medium's impending demise, photography about photography, and "da(r)ta" digital art that comments on its own structure. Conveying a deep respect for the importance of photography, he laments the way images have become commodities in the digital age. Batchen also explores the history of photography and looks at larger cultural forces from within the framework of the medium. This collection of nine recent essays of various origins (with thorough notes and index) contains some repetition, but that small complaint is outweighed by Batchen's compelling arguments and analyses. Of interest to photographers, historians, and philosophers, both books will serve multiple audiences and are recommended for academic and large public libraries. Debora Miller, Minneapolis
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“In Flusser, we’ve found our Wittgenstein. By that I mean, in the ways that 1960s conceptual artists found his Philosophical Investigations as granting them the necessary permission to see the world around them with fresh eyes, Flusser’s forays into media have framed, theorized, and unpacked the new complexities of our digital world. By empirically questioning received knowledge and recasting it within crisp lines of history and logic, he’s made the digital legible in a time when its theorization is occluded and murky to say the least. Like de Kooning’s famous statement: ‘History does not influence me. I influence it,’ it’s taken Flusser’s analog-based investigations in the twentieth century to show how to be in the digitally soaked twenty-first.” -- Kenneth Goldsmith ― Los Angeles Review of Books

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00C2PIMCE
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Reaktion Books (March 28, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 28, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 226 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 113 ratings

About the author

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Vilém Flusser

Vilém Flusser

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The philosopher Vilém Flusser was born in Prague 
in 1920 but emigrated to Brazil, fleeing from Nazi persecution, at the outbreak of war in 1939, arriving 
in Rio de Janeiro at the end of 1940, with his wife and parents-in-law, after a short stay in London. The Flussers settled in São Paulo during the 1940s, where they lived for thirty-two years. In the early years of the 1970s they moved back to Europe, settling first in Italy, and subsequently in Robion, France, where they lived until Vilém Flusser's untimely death in 1991 after a car crash, as he left Prague at the end of a symposium.

During the years he lived in Brazil, Flusser wrote for several Brazilian periodicals and taught at different academic institutions, among them, the University of São Paulo, the Brazilian Institute of Philosophy, and the Institute of Technology and Aeronautics. His first two books, "Lingua e Realidade" and "A História do Diabo," were published in Brazil during the 1960s.

In the late 1970s, and throughout the 1980s, Flusser travelled most of Europe lecturing and participating in conferences and symposia, during which time he published his most well-known titles. He came to prominence in the field of Media Philosophy after publishing his seminal book "Towards a Philosophy of Photography" in 1984, shortly followed by "Ins Universum der Technischen Bilder" in 1985, and "Die Schrift. Hat Schreiben Zukunft?" in 1987.

As a polyglot, Flusser wrote in four different languages, German, Portuguese, English, and French.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
113 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

C. JO
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book for understanding photography in digital age
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2013
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I bought this book as a supplement to Korean version of the same book, because the transfer of meanings can change slightly according to the language. This english version really helped to understand the original meaning of the author. (Original version was written in German as you may already know.)
If you are interested in photography and philosophy of photography, this book will help you a lot although it will be slightly difficult to understand the author's concept at the first chapter.
5 people found this helpful
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Andrzej Brodzik
5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on photography I've read
Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2021
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The best book on photography I've read
One person found this helpful
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Buddy Love
5.0 out of 5 stars Philosophy can be amusing
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2011
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Wack book. Pretty funny, very prescient, and beautifully written. However I'm not in agreement with the fundamental structuralist view of society that pretty much characterises human's as lacking any significant agency and sees the world run by invisible forces that seem to be out of our control. In that sense it is a bit technologically deterministic.
7 people found this helpful
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Donald G. Stanton
3.0 out of 5 stars ... book about photography written by a philosopher is at best hard to follow
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2015
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A book about photography written by a philosopher is at best hard to follow, V. Flusser really does not know any photographers and there fore does not know how they think or work,
2 people found this helpful
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Robert W Skeoch
4.0 out of 5 stars Short but interesting
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2013
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This is a short book but some great points are made. Maybe you don't agree with all of them, but it's interesting to read another's point of view about photography. Written at an advanced level, if you're casual about photographer, maybe pick something else. If you're trying to get a deeper perspective on photography then this is a useful read.
4 people found this helpful
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Geoffrey A Rhodes
5.0 out of 5 stars best newish writer on this subject
Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2013
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Flusser is the ONLY exciting theorist on the subject of Design, and this collection on Photography, mostly published in Art Forum in the 80s, is a very nice, post-digital, update to Roland Barthes.
4 people found this helpful
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Gravy
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2016
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An excellent read for any photographer, especially those who enjoy high concept art/reading. The book arrived in perfect condition.
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars great deal!
Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2017
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textbook is in good condition and with nice cover!
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Top reviews from other countries

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Arr Daigler
5.0 out of 5 stars waking up to consciousness
Reviewed in Canada on August 28, 2018
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it might elude you on many occasions, it did just that for me with many chapters. it is philosophy after all. then it wraps up and you realize you've red THE book that made so you more conscious of your work. for those photographers - from every trend - who wish to understand their subconscious discourse, and bring it to a greater level of consciousness, to a more acute expression of it, without ever shutting the subconscious from speaking. a book of just the right length, that can be easily taken a piece at a time.
One person found this helpful
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Francois BON
5.0 out of 5 stars concerne aussi l'ecriture
Reviewed in France on October 17, 2015
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une approche fondamentale par repenser l'histoire de l'écrit dans une histoire commune de la représentation, depuis une notion d'image élargie et revisitée
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Crocker
5.0 out of 5 stars A important work in the study of photographic theory
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 21, 2012
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I must confess I have little time for most photographic theory books , but this is different , it is well written and although not exactly a light read the 82 pages give an insight in to the world of image making which I would suggest is far more insightful and thought provoking than many other books on the subject . Were I making a reading list for any student of photography then this would be one of the first of my recommendations .
7 people found this helpful
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Shaz
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 14, 2020
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Purchased as on a degree reading list, very interesting read, definitely recommend for anyone studying photography
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Steven Conner
5.0 out of 5 stars Nice short book and very relevant to the critical thinking ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2017
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Nice short book and very relevant to the critical thinking behind photography. I would make it
required reading for students of photography.
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