Believing Is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography, (Paperback)

from Harlan879

A fascinating and beautifully-produced, if somewhat under-edited, set of essays about photography and what we can know about a situation from those photographs. Errol Morris is an amazingly thoughtful person, with a great eye for both the importance of visual media and the stories that people tell.

from cerfercat

A fascinating analysis of photography - what it is, what role it plays in society, the traits people associate with it, beliefs, truths, assumptions - in four acts. Errol Morris selects four photographs, or four scenes that are photographed, and examines the history and controversy of each. The b...

from wrk1

"How do we know what we know?" illustrated and discussed over and over in a series of essays where the truth of photographs from Abu Ghraib in 2003, Sepastopol in the 1850's, the U.S. in the 1930's, Lebanon in 2007, and from Gettysburg in 1863 is discussed. The subtitles of the sections:Intention...

from rivkat

Morris makes documentaries, and this is definitely a book written by a documentarian, which is not entirely a criticism. There are a lot of transcripts of long exchanges between him and people he calls up to talk to about various photos (which is actually not how he does his documentaries, where ...

from Paulagraph

That photography both reveals and conceals is not a new idea. Or that, as Morris comments, "concepts of naturalness, authenticity, and posing are all slippery slopes that when carefully examined become hopelessly vague." Or that, throughout the history of photography, photographers and others hav...