“Painting and Photography,” “Photography Criticism” “Richard Billingham2"

Roth, Nancy (2005) “Painting and Photography,” “Photography Criticism” “Richard Billingham2". In: Oxford Companion to the Photograph. Oxford Companions . Oxford University Press, UK. ISBN 0198662718

Abstract / Summary

In his introduction to The Companion, General Editor Robin Lenman articulates the rigorous standards and boundaries the editorial staff set for this volume. Broadly, it was an effort to strike a balance between a very comprehensive coverage of contemporary photography, and a usable, “companionable” work that does not duplicate information either internally or with other volumes of comparable scope. The importance of any specific entry is clearly bound up with its position in what is essentially a reference book, providing very concise, reliable and accessible information about an extremely broad range of topics related to “The Photograph.”

Roth's entries all reflect research interest, “Painting and Photography,” and “Criticism of Photography,” being quite broad and abstract, related to the historical impact of photography, particularly in art, and the third, “Richard Billingham” more focussed on an interest in family photography. Both entries give a clear, comprehensible “shape” to a very large topic in very few words. The tension between painting and photography, for example, has been a constant feature of photographic history, persisting-through radical changes in both media. It still presents a rich field for research today. Criticism of the medium of photography as a whole — as opposed to the criticism of particular photographers or images, demands a very high level of generality: This entry therefore takes a somewhat unusual view of a fairly small photographic literature written from “outside” the field. Richard Billingham’s photographs of his family represent a really exceptional moment of vision from within a set of relationships, a position without real precedent, and unlikely to have followers.

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