{"product_id":"at-the-edge-of-sight-9780822355021","title":"At the Edge of Sight","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShawn Michelle Smith examines how the advent of photography revolutionized perception, making what was once invisible visible, while also revealing the limitations of what can be seen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A beautifully written and deeply original book, \u003ci\u003eAt the Edge of Sight\u003c\/i\u003e integrates historical and theoretical sophistication with the author's distinguished practice of photography in very new ways. Shawn Michelle Smith investigates the medium's patterns of blindness. This negative potential—learning to observe what one is not seeing—is revolutionary, and its profound, peculiar, uncanny force is beautifully invoked throughout.\"—\u003cb\u003eLaura Wexler\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eTender Violence: Domestic Visions in an Age of U.S. Imperialism\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Shawn Michelle Smith is our foremost scholar of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century American photography. In this book, she engages with Benjamin's notion of the optical unconscious to think through what's at the 'edge of sight' in the work of photographers and theorists, an approach that allows her to bring together, successfully, a wide range of insights and political formations.\"—\u003cb\u003eElspeth H. Brown\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Corporate Eye: Photography and the Rationalization of American Commercial Culture, 1884–1929\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Smith works to expand the field of vision of the photograph, beyond the limitations of the frame. She asks, what is hidden at the edges of photographs?.... I am a sympathetic reader. I too glut myself with old photographs, scanning and enlarging, searching for meaning in a blurred hand, a shadow without identifiable source, a mouth captured mid-word.” -- Jenna Brager * The New Inquiry *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eAt the Edge of Sight \u003c\/i\u003eachieves an agreeable balance between the beauty of prose and the difficulty of subject matter and is therefore valuable not only for its critical insights but also for its accessible presentational style. Furthermore, Smith accompanies several chapters with her own artworks, which adds a personal note to the writing. The title thus integrates archival research, critical writing with photography and arts practice resulting in a work that offers rewarding general reading as well as useful classroom material.\" -- Jelena Stojkovic * Visual Studies *\u003cbr\u003e“This is a solid invitation to rethink one’s own—and history’s—understanding of photography’s vast presence and influence on life. Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers.\" -- C. Chiarenza * Choice *\u003cbr\u003e \"A provocative idea about the visual and cultural limitations of photography and a model for how to analyze photographs as complex historical documents.\" -- Martha Sandweiss * Journal of American History *\u003cbr\u003e“Given this persuasive combination of photographic theory, analysis and practice with history and politics, \u003ci\u003eAt the Edge of Sight\u003c\/i\u003e should appeal not just to art historians and others invested in photographic theory and history, but more broadly to scholars and readers interested in American studies, visual culture, and US history.”   -- Marcy J. Dinius * Journal of American Studies *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eList of Illustrations ix\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments xv\u003cbr\u003e Introduction. First Photographs 1\u003cbr\u003e — \u003ci\u003eExcess and Accident\u003c\/i\u003e 21\u003cbr\u003e 1. Race and Reproduction in \u003ci\u003eCamera Lucida\u003c\/i\u003e 23\u003cbr\u003e 2. The Politics of Pictorialism: Another Look at F. Holland Day 39\u003cbr\u003e — \u003ci\u003eMy Muybridge\u003c\/i\u003e 73\u003cbr\u003e 3. The Space Between: Eadweard Muybridge's Motion Studies 75\u003cbr\u003e 4. Preparing the Way for the Train: Andrew J. Russell 99\u003cbr\u003e — \u003ci\u003eWhen the Train Rolls In\u003c\/i\u003e 129\u003cbr\u003e 5. Chansonetta Stanley Emmons's Nostalgic Views 131\u003cbr\u003e 6. Augustus Washington and the Civil Contract of Photography 165\u003cbr\u003e — \u003ci\u003eIn the Crowd\u003c\/i\u003e 193\u003cbr\u003e 7. Afterimages: Abu Ghraib 195\u003cbr\u003e — \u003ci\u003eUntitled (Abu Graib)\u003c\/i\u003e 213\u003cbr\u003e Epilogue. A Parting Glance 215\u003cbr\u003e Notes 217\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography 265\u003cbr\u003e Index 283","brand":"Duke University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49406076584279,"sku":"9780822355021","price":28.8,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/at-the-edge-of-sight-9780822355021","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}