{"product_id":"why-photographs-a-book-without-photographs-9798902670667","title":"Why Photographs? (a book without photographs)","description":"\u003cp\u003eTimely and essential, \u003cem\u003eWhy Photographs?\u003c\/em\u003e is meant for anyone interested in discovering how to really look at a photograph. According to Neil Selkirk's book, almost since the beginning, most of us have had it all wrong. Insofar as art is the pursuit of human self-knowledge, then photography, from its invention, should have been recognized as a direct route to enlightenment. Beginning with the fact that painters start with a blank canvas and photographers start with a full one, the two media have never had anything meaningful in common. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe photograph's delight in riveting detail, spontaneity, evident credibility, and its embrace of chance--radical new characteristics immediately recognized by its inventors--were promptly pounced on and denounced as unartistic by an establishment that correctly recognized photography as an existential threat to painting. That establishment's failed attempts over the next one hundred and fifty years to belittle the legitimacy of the new medium did however succeed in confusing and muddying the process of looking. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhy Photographs?\u003c\/em\u003e is a defense of straight photography, offered at a moment when the photograph as a simple, credible document is facing obsolescence. Since the earliest days, independent minds have seen through the smokescreen to the pictures themselves: the essays, poems, and one-liners gathered here are nothing less than a celebration of the rewards of simply looking. \u003cem\u003eWhy Photographs?\u003c\/em\u003e illuminates those long-camouflaged secrets, which are in fact photography's unique gift to us all.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Warbler Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/06\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798902670667\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 256\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.98lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.75d","brand":"Neil Selkirk","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53514360783029,"sku":"9798902670667","price":24.61,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/9798902670667.jpg?v=1791903808","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/why-photographs-a-book-without-photographs-9798902670667","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}