The Anxiety of Photography

The pervasive use of photography by Conceptual artists—and a generation later by artists of the so called Pictures Generation—effectively ended any debate about the validity of photography operating legitimately within the sphere of contemporary art. Photography’s undefined, in-between status—as a medium, a tool, an object, a practice or, more often than not, some combination thereof—is still however, unresolved. The Anxiety of Photography examines the growing number of artists—some of whom self-identify as photographers, others for whom photography is central to their work—who embrace photography’s plasticity, having internalized an expanded collage aesthetic and digested various ideas of appropriation. Among the artists included in this volume are Liz Deschenes, Roe Ethridge, Matt Keegan, Annette Kelm, Elad Lassry, Anthony Pearson, Sara Greenberger Rafferty, Erin Shirreff, Sara Van Der Beek and Mark Wyse.