As images become infinite and untethered from cameras, Natasha Chuk traces the evolving influence of photography in a world saturated with digital art.
Photo Obscura brings a much-needed reflection on the radical transformations of photography in the digital age, where AI, computational media, and hybrid art practices challenge traditional definitions of the photographic image. Moving beyond nostalgia for analog or the simple embrace of digital, this book positions post-photography as a movement reshaping our visual culture. It is a movement in which images may no longer look like photographs but remain deeply influenced by photography’s logic and history.
Through discussions of key artworks and a variety of artists, the book explores themes including AI-generated imagery and the blurred line between representation and perception. Grounded in art history and media studies, Photo Obscura offers a new outlook on photography’s evolving role in contemporary art. Particularly suited for students, artists, and scholars of photography, digital arts, and visual culture, this work redefines what it means to see and believe in an era of infinite images.
Photo Obscura brings a much-needed reflection on the radical transformations of photography in the digital age, where AI, computational media, and hybrid art practices challenge traditional definitions of the photographic image. Moving beyond nostalgia for analog or the simple embrace of digital, this book positions post-photography as a movement reshaping our visual culture. It is a movement in which images may no longer look like photographs but remain deeply influenced by photography’s logic and history.
Through discussions of key artworks and a variety of artists, the book explores themes including AI-generated imagery and the blurred line between representation and perception. Grounded in art history and media studies, Photo Obscura offers a new outlook on photography’s evolving role in contemporary art. Particularly suited for students, artists, and scholars of photography, digital arts, and visual culture, this work redefines what it means to see and believe in an era of infinite images.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction: From Photography to Photographic
- On Post-Photography: With, Through, and Because of Photography
- A Brief History of AI Images, or the New Composite, Cameraless, Post-Photographic, Statistical, Vernacular Image
- Expressive Realities: Claudia Hart, Maria Mavropoulou, and Diana Velasco
- A Robust Flatness: Rosa Menkman, Auriea Harvey, Penelope Umbrico, and Richard A. Carter
- Virtual Landscapes and Hybrid Bodies: Pascal Greco and Snow Yunxue Fu
- Performing the Archive: Stephanie Dinkins and Carla Gannis
- Photo Objects: Sophie Kahn, Colette Robbins, and Ida Kvetny
- Between Resistance and the Expansion of Photography: Lev Manovich
Bibliography