Le sens caché de la photographie

What does an image tell us? In the past, paintings were forests of symbols, in particular the religious compositions that we are no longer capable of deciphering. When looking at a photograph we immediately understand it, and so we think spontaneously, things should be different. That is not so sure. In any case, by shedding light on all conventions on poses, angles, on the use of blurred photographs and close-ups, whose meaning has varied through time, this work seems to reach that conclusion. The author analyses photographs that make up a history of the discipline, present, from the beginning of 1839 up to our days, some one hundred authors, most of them true legends, from Ansel Adams to Bill Brandt and Cartier-Bresson.

• Le sens caché de la photographie (The hidden sens of photography) by Ian Jeffrey, Ludion, 2009, 382 p., 34,90 €, ISBN : 978-90-5544-764-0