Visual Literacy Archive: Articles, Books, and Blogposts on How Images Work

This evolving resource and archive was developed out of a class on visual literacy Jon Feinstein, Melinda Hurst Frye, Daniel Gregory and a rotating roster of photography professionals teach at Seattle's Photographic Center Northwest. The continually updating materials and links below aim to help students, educators, photo nerds, and enthusiasts expand their understanding of how images work, how their structural properties contribute to how we understand their meaning, how images influence how we interpret current events and how cultural and personal experience might change how we see.

Special thanks to PCNW's Eirik Johnson and Michelle Dunn Marsh.  (please note - some are links to the full article/ downloadable PDFs, others are books for purchase)

Representation, Cultural Criticism, Ethics and Current Events:

Books:

• Susan Sontag: On Photography - specifically In Plato’s Cave (PDF Download)

• John Berger: Ways of Seeing

• Catherin Lutz and Jane Collins: Reading National Geographic (Link to Buy on Amazon)

Essays, Articles and Blogposts:

• Judith Williamson: Decoding Advertisements (PDF Download)

• In The Future We Will Photograph Everything and Look at Nothing

• Debra Brehmer: Every Portrait Tells a Lie

• Sunday Times Tells Freelance Photographers Not to Submit Images From Syria

• An Illustrated Guide to Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle

• Anna Heyward: The Opposite of A Muse

• Color Film Was Built For White People. Here’s What it Did to Dark Skin

• Tom Junod. The Falling Man

• Jerry Saltz: The Tyranny of Art History in Contemporary Art

• The Beautiful Story of One Man Who Taught Himself Photography in Prison

• Claire Bracegirdle: 5 Things That Can’t Be Ignored About Developement Photography

• Gordon Lewis-Kraus: What We See When We Look at Travel Photography

• Claire Voon: Appropriated Images of Black People Spark Boycott at St. Louis Art Museum

• James Estrin: A New Look at August Sander's 'People of the Twentieth Century

How Pictures Work: photographic seeing, the structure and semiotics of images

Books:

• Molly Bang: How Pictures Work

• Stephen Shore: The Nature of Photographs (Link to buy on Amazon)

• John Szarkowski: Intro to Eggleston's Guide (PDF Download)

• John Szarkowski: The Photographer’s Eye

• Roland Barthes: Camera Lucida (PDF Download)

• Jean Baudrillard: Simulacra and Simulation (PDF Download)

• Jean Baudrillard: Simulacra and Simulation (PDF Download)

• Tod Papageorge: Core Curriculum

Essays/Articles/Blogposts

• The Ladies on the Bench Emma Allen, The New Yorker, 2014

• Literacy Through Photography (blog)

• What Does a Photograph Sound Like

• On Clichés

• I Never Want To See Another Experimental Photograph

• What Does it Mean to Photograph Someone From Behind?

• Finding Myself in a Photograph: Part 1

• Close, Susan. Reading Photographs: Playing The Visual Literacy Game

• Let’s Take A Deep Dive Into This Trump Family Portrait

Videos:

• Martin Scorsese on Visual Literacy

• Library of Congress: How to Read a Photograp

Critical Photo History

Books

• Liz Wells: Photography - A Critical Introduction

• Deborah Willis: Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers - 1840 to the Present

Visual Literacy in Politics, Current Events and News Photography

Blogposts/ Essays

• Astonishing Pic of Hillary Clinton Shows What We’ve Become

• Why There’s No Such Thing As An Iconic Image

General Criticism/ Writing on Photography

Books:

• Terry Barrett: Criticizing Photographs Purchase

• Marvin Heifferman: Photography Changes Everything

Essays/Articles/Blogposts

• Rebecca Solnit: How To Be A Writer

• Miki Johnson: Why Good Art Makes You Uncomfortable

• Severen Matusek: Sebastiao Salgado’s Advice For Young Photographers Today

• Visual Rhetoric/Visual Literacy: Writing About Photography

Writing about Writing on Photography/ Artist Statements etc Essays/ Blogposts:

• The Artist Statements of the Old Masters

Technology, New Photography Etc

Books:

• Charlotte Cotton: Photography is Magic ( Link to buy on Amazon)

Essays/Articles/Blogposts:

• Marvin Heifferman: Photography is the New Universal Language

• Stephen Bailey: Is Instagram the Death of Saviour of Photography?

• Josh Raab Is this Computer Algorithm Better Than Photo Editors?

• Steven Johnson: Want to Know What Virtual Reality Might Become? Have a Look at The Past

Interviews with Photographers:

Alec Soth on the Process behind the Portrait

Exhibition Reviews

Steph Rodney: Turning The Male Gaze on Its Head
Elin Spring: Arne Svenson Exhibition Review