J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Geoff Dyer
Episode #34, Summary
An anthology of Geoff Dyer’s imaginative criticism on the phenomena of photography and photographers written within the past decade.
Episode Notes
See/Saw compiles observational musings on over 40 photographers plus reflections on the writings of Roland Barthes and John Berger. Erudite, entertaining and thought-provoking this book is a veritable library of looking. It introduces unheralded imagemakers that capture imagination while sending readers into deep research on the plethora of historical and contemporary references evoked.
In this book group, Geoff Dyer discusses, among other things:
Talking about meaning versus talking about the photographs
Conjuring images in words
Writing that combines the critical with the creative
Language everyone thinks they can speak
Ability of photos to illuminate consciousness
Instability and ever-expanding nature of photographic history
The aesthethic purity of Walker Evans
What constitutes signiifers now
A photograph as memorial
Referenced in the episode
The Street Photography of Garry Winogrand
On Photography NYT, The Mysteries of Our Family Snapshots, January 2017
The Suffering of Light by Alex Webb
Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes
Mirrors and Windows: American Photography Since 1960
Believing is Seeing Errol Morris
Published by GrayWolf Press