A second approach for considering photographic realism is to define photography as a “reflective medium.” In a theoretical context, this term (“Reflexionsmedium”) featured prominently in Walter Benjamin’s dissertation Der Begriff der Kunstkritik in der deutschen Romantik (The Concept of Art Criticism in German Romanticism). Benjamin writes, “Reflection constitutes the absolute and constitutes it as a [...]
George Baker is a writer, curator, and co-editor of OCTOBER Magazine. He has written or edited books on photographers including Gerard Byrne (2003), James Coleman (2003), and is currently finishing a book stemming from his 2005 essay “Photography’s Expanded Field.” Focused on the work of four women artists—Zoe Leonard, Tacita Dean, Moyra Davey, and Sharon Lockhart—the forthcoming book will be entitled Lateness and Longing: On the Afterlife of Photography (University of Chicago Press, 2014). He teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).