'All Photographs Are Constructions'
Agree with the title of this post? Have limited patience for purism and 'straight' photography?
Has Focal Press got a book for you. "Transformational Imagemaking: Handmade Photography Since 1960 
is a groundbreaking survey of significant work and ideas by imagemakers who have pushed beyond the boundaries of photography as a window on our material world. These artists represent a diverse group of curious experimentalists who have propelled the medium’s evolution by visualizing their subject matter as it originates from their mind’s eye. Many favor the historical techniques commonly known as alternative photographic processes, but all these makers demonstrate that the real alternative is found in their mental approach and not in their use of physical methods."
The last book I can recall that addressed this question so head-on is The Photography of Invention: American Pictures of the 1980s 
, but Joshua Smith and Merry Foresta's book, published in 1989, was a look back at the '80s, and thus narrower in scope.
There's a great interview with author Robert Hirsch at Photo.net, worth a look even if—or perhaps especially if—you're not interested in the book.
Mike
(Thanks to Saul Molloy)
Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.
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