Photography of Invention: American Pictures of the 1980s
by: Joshua P. Smith, Merry A. Foresta, et al.

Hardcover. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 208 pages. Pictures that are made, not taken, are the focus of this exciting collection of works by 90 American artists who are using appropriation, computer technology, performance, and numerous other sources of inspiration to stretch the limits and expand the possibilities of photographic art. "Perhaps in the future," Man Ray suggested to Duchamp, "photography would replace all art." The Photography of Invention hints at that future by documenting a decade of startling new work in American photography: work that challenges the accepted hierarchy of the arts and, arguably, establishes photography as the equal of the other arts. Pictures that are made, not taken, are the focus of this exciting collection of works by 90 American artists who are using appropriation, computer technology, performance, and numerous other sources of inspiration to stretch the limits and expand the possibilities of photographic art. The selection of nontraditional pictures includes works by some of the decade's most interesting experimenters-Cindy Sherman, Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince, Barbara Kruger, William Christenberry, Louise Lawler, Stefan Roloff, and others who create or manipulate the subject photographed.