Cotton, Charlotte (2009) The photograph as contemporary art. New Edition. London: Thames & Hudson

Cotton’s book serves as a fantastic introduction to the world of contemporary art. The book introduces an eclectic array of photographers with a tremendous amount of variety. 

I find the text well written providing a basic history of each artist and summaries of their work, as well as background detail on the images selected for the book. 

What I find impressive is the shear range of work that is covered in a comparatively small volume. 

Reading this book has had two positive outcomes for me. First it has introduced me to the work of photographers who I previously had no exposure to, and has sent me out looking further at their work. 

Secondly, the book has given me more confidence in my own work as I can now better understand how something that may be considered ‘wrong’ in terms of technique for one person, can be considered by another to be exactly what they are looking for. This gives me greater motivation to pursue and define my own style without a need to have it universally accepted. The moment of realisation coming as I looked at some images which to be blunt I thought were garbage. However, this ‘garbage’ was created by someone, and another person thought highly enough of it for it to be published in this book.  Of course this does not mean that technique is something to be disregarded, I see it as more that the technique should be used to create the vision. Not the vision changed to suit technique.

I highly recommend this book for anyone with even a passing interest in contemporary art.