Brian Wallis

The Order of Things: Photography from the Walther Collection Brian Wallis

Marc Notes: Throughout the modern era, photography has been enlisted to classify the world and its people. Driven by a belief in the scientific objectivity of photographic evidence, the systems utilised to classify photographs have shaped modern visual culture. Accompanying an exhibition, this book investigates the production and uses of serial portraiture, vernacular imagery, architectural surveys and time-based performance in photography from the 1880s to the present, bringing together works by artists from Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. Publisher Marketing: Throughout the modern era, photography has been enlisted not only to document but also to classify the world and its people. Its status bolstered by a popular belief in the scientific objectivity of photographic evidence, photography has been used, from the earliest days of the medium, to produce and organize knowledge about the external world. Published to accompany the exhibition "The Order of Things: Photography from The Walther Collection," this catalogue investigates the production and uses of serial portraiture, vernacular imagery, architectural surveys and time-based performance in photography from the 1880s to the present, bringing together works by artists from Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. Setting early modernist photographers Karl Blossfeldt and August Sander in dialogue with contemporary artists such as Ai Weiwei, Nobuyoshi Araki, Richard Avedon, Zanele Muholi, Stephen Shore and Zhuang Huan, "The Order of Things" illustrates how typological methods in photography have developed around the globe. Edited by Brian Wallis, "The Order of Things" includes texts by Geoffrey Batchen, Tina Campt, Christopher Phillips, George Baker, Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault, Michael Jennings, Ulrike Schneider, Allan Sekula and Joel Smith.

Contributor Bio:  Wallis, Brian Brian Wallis is a senior editor of " Art in America". Contributor Bio:  Benjamin, Walter Walter Benjamin (1892 1940) was a German philosopher and cultural critic and one of the most important theorists of the twentieth century. Contributor Bio:  Batchen, Geoffrey Geoffrey Batchen is Professor of the History of Photography and Contemporary Art at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He is the author of "Burning with Desire: The Conceptions of Photography" (1999) and "Each Wild Idea: Writing, Photography, History" (2002), both published by the MIT Press. Contributor Bio:  Foucault, Michel Michel Foucault (1926--84) is widely considered to be one of the most influential academic voices of the twentieth century and has proven influential across disciplines.